Bulls director of rugby Jake White hailed the efforts of Canan Moodie after their Challenge Cup quarter-final defeat to Edinburgh at Hive Stadium on Saturday.
The Pretoria-based outfit suffered a 34–28 loss but showed plenty of character as they were trailing their hosts 31-7 early in the second half with Moodie at the forefront of the fightback.
The 22-year-old came on as an injury replacement for Sergeal Petersen in the 44th minute and delivered a brilliant attacking performance, which earned special praise from White after the match.
It was a far cry from December last year when White revealed that he told Moodie “to start staying away from the buffet” after the Springboks flyer delivered a sluggish performance during a United Rugby Championship (URC) victory over Connacht.
‘He’s got class’
“Unbelievable. I don’t want you to write anything about buffets and things anymore, please guys!” White said jokingly about Moodie. “I mean, he’s got class, you know. And he’s been out for a while, and to have him back, I mean, all the touches he had today were outstanding.
“And I’m happy for him, because there’s an example. He went through a stage where, when he came back into the team after international rugby, people know who he is. And he played against, I mean, international wingers (Darcy Graham and Ross McCann).
“So, for him to create the space and opportunities he did, and that sort of thing, is going to give him massive amounts of confidence.”
Moodie was making his return to action after sustaining a concussion in the Bulls‘ URC loss to the Stormers last month and combined brilliantly with Johan Goosen, who was playing in only his second match after recovering from a knee injury.
Goosen replaced Keagan Johannes at half-time, and White is happy with the progress the Boks playmaker has made since returning from injury in the Bulls’ Challenge Cup round of 16 triumph over Bayonne last weekend.
“The thought process was very simple: he’s our number-one number 10,” he said. “He’s come back from a long injury, and I basically blooded him as he played 20 minutes last week and 40 minutes this week.
“Ruan Nortjé is the same: 20 minutes, then 40 last week and 60 this week. That’s all part of being aware that not everyone is 80-minute game-ready.
Crucial to the Bulls’ cause
“But you know how much I rate him (Goosen), how much I talk about him in terms of how we want to play.
“So, to have him for 40 minutes where our backs were against the wall, I think he showed everybody how important he is to us at the Bulls.”
White couldn’t hide his disappointment with the end result against Edinburgh and felt they could’ve secured a victory if they had some more time in the game.
“This one hurts more than any other game because you are out of the competition,” he said. “It was disappointing because I genuinely thought that, especially with the bench we had, it was almost like we ran out of time.
“If we played for five more minutes, I have no doubt we would have ended up winning that game.”
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/jake-white-revisits-canan-moodies-buffet-controversy-as-bulls-boss-gives-verdict-on-unbelievable-springbok
