White dismisses South Africa’s hopes in the Champions Cup

JOHANNESBURG – The Bulls will face a major character test this week when they travel to England on Tuesday ahead of their Heineken Champions Cup match against the Exeter Chiefs at the weekend.

The Pretoria-based will begin an arduous 24-hour journey that includes a flight to Doha before arriving in London.

This will be followed by a four-hour bus trip to reach their destination.

Bulls director of rugby Jake White will then have just one training session before taking on the Chiefs at a ground that vising teams have found difficult to play on.

Ahead of the encounter, White made a startling admission that he doesn’t see any of the South African teams’ chances of repeating the Stormers’ exploits in the United Rugby Championship where they won the whole competition at their first attempt.

“Do you genuinely think that our squads are strong enough to beat Toulouse in the quarter-finals, La Rochelle in the semi-finals and Leinster away from home in a final in three consecutive weekends? If you do then either you’re disconnected from reality or there’s going to be a lot of luck that’s needed for that team considering they’re also playing in the Currie Cup and the URC,” White said

The Sharks and the Bulls won their debut matches at home this past weekend while the Stormers were on the losing end on the road.

White believes that it will be difficult for the country’s three teams to produce consistent performances due to having smaller budgets.

“In a once-off game, you can maybe beat a top side. But to consecutively back it up week after week at the end of a long season against three teams that have a budget of R180 million as opposed to R70 million, I think we’re kidding ourselves,” White added

The Bulls are away to the Exeter Chiefs at 17:00 on Saturday, 17 December.