2025 URC Final Bulls vs Leinster

Is this guy really Ireland's kicker?

He's friggin terrible

The irony the ref calls the Bools offside when Leinster has been off all game

De Klerk injured and the Bulls have zero ideas.

I'm done.

Can't be bothered to watch the last 15 minutes of this absolute shit show.

Back to watch the last bit. We call scores and replacements etc. all the time on these threads.

Another penalty for Leinster and Pretendergast will go for the 3. 25-7

Now Akker slips and drops the pass. Would probably have been a slightly more watchable game at Loftus.

Leinster drops the pass, Bulls immediately kicks it back to them.

Willie should probably just leave the field, don't even bother replacing him.

And Leinster show the Bulls some rugby and score again.

32-7. This has been an embarrassment for SA rugby.

Oh now the Bulls want to run it, 25 down with 5 minutes to go.

Pathetic seeing Nienaber in his subservient role. That said the Leinster defence is watertight.

Wonder how RG feels playing against his team mates and vice versa.

Non event, Bulls were awful, Ladyboys coast it in 2nd gear.

LOL, and still the Bulls kick it back to Leinster, even 25 points down. Clueless.

Well that was the best of SA provincial rugby. Jake, bless his little shoes and all he has achieved, can't coach finals to save his arse.

Outplayed, outclassed, outdone...A useful as tits on a bull.

What bothered me is the TOTAL ABSENCE of a GAME PLAN for the match,

I forecasted a win by Leinster - but only by a 7 points margin. That shows somethig wrong with the team management..

Here's what I truly believe Jake tells the lads once it's playoffs time:

"Okay boys, remember all we've done this season? How we've molded the forwards into a well oiled unit that hunts like a pack and physically dominates whatever gets in their way? Remember the lines we ran to score, the offloads we used to put people away and keep the momentum going, the runner we had on every shoulder? Well, forget all of that shit. All I want you to do in these last games is to kick whatever possession we manage to secure back to the other guys and hope they don't know what to do with it, and to pick and go until something breaks. None of the other stuff, just that."

The joke is that worked against the Sharks because they really didn't know what to do with all that free and easy possession, but it was never going to work against a remotely competent side.

What a pathetic lame performance that was

Commentators said Jake prayed for rain - well he got that but we saw no plan to capitalise on his pray

Yeah watched Jakes after match press conference and he mentioned it himself but also said that basically in order for the Bulls to beat a team like Leinster it would require Leinster to have a bad game.

Came across as a totally defeatist attitude. It doesn't require Leinster to have a bad game, it requires a team to make Leinster have a bad game.

Northampton beat Leinster in the Champions Cup Semi final and they are not as good a team as Leinster but they won that match on the day, wasn't Leinster losing it.

It's alright being a realist as Jake says and say yeah sure on paper full strength Leinster at home will beat the Bulls 7 times out of 10 or whatever, but you still need to have you players believe that if they play to their full potential they can win on the day.

Well done Leinster.

Strange to think we’ve beaten both of the URC Finalists this season ;)

Congrats to the Irish ... Bulle were woeful. An embarrassment.

This type of rugby is typical Jake White teams gameplan or lack thereof in play-off games and finals, Lets gove some examples:-

1. After beatting the English team 36 - 0 the Springboks struggled to beat England in he finals - a pathetic performance with no game plan and reling totally on kicks at goals - that is negligent mistakes made by the English in being penalized, For the rest kicked the shit out of the ball - as Smit said aftrwards there were n game plan.

1. The 2012 Super Rugby quarterfinals match in Super Rugby, After a tyoical of kicking by the Bulls - the Brumbies played a shit ame in Pretoria playing Jakeball and no real rugby. The Brumbies won because Jake knew that the Bulls were Supershit and had no game plan with superkick shit by the Bulls and the defense was putrid and beat them In the quarterfinals the Brumbies played Jakeball and lost pathetically,

1. Same story against the Crusaders semifnal in 2014

1. Same story in the 2023 URC against the Stormers,

So why does it happen in critical matches where wins could have helped the teams coahed by White/ Pakie gave an exact description of what happened to the teams coached by White - I could not describe it better, But there is another issue that I have never seen in teams coached by White and seen in evey critical match the Springboks used systematically by Erasmus, Study the pro's and con"s of every opposition player and in defense and in attacks neutralize them by playing to each player weaknesses with defense against their strengths by systematic defense.

The trend over the years became apparant - when playing in critical games kicked he shit out of balls, I develop a name for the game plan in critical games - it is called Jakeball and means not playing real rigby at all.. The difference between Meyer and White alweays was is thatWhuite had one siccessful tirunament to brag about - Meyer was worse since he never won in anything and White could count on the 2007 RWC in his favor,

I myself wonder how long Motsepe and Rupert would put up with White as coach, They would rather consider replacing him with any other coach and even Nienaber springs to mind, All A franchise coaches bar theLions have poor coaches. I think if the Lions had the money to recruit and retain players the Bulls and Sharks have they managed to play better rugby in some games than the Bulls and Sharks managed in critical matches.

So the Sharks, Bulls and Stormers need top class coaches and they should strive to find better coaces than they had ove the last two years,

.

There is the not insignificant point of flying to Ireland and having 5 days to recover and play the match. Time again in super rugby we saw teams underperforming the first match after flying.

Lots of criticism of the Bools tactics….but they are the Springbok rugby tactics. Defend, kick and scrum. Today Wessels was dominated so the scrums never worked…and the tactical kicking was poor. But here are some stats which might surprise you:

Possession and Territory was 50/50…the Bools beat 20 defenders to 13…made 78% of their tackles to 79%.

The biggest difference was Leinster had 10 clean breaks to 1. The Bulls defence was too narrow when breached. Leinster defended brilliantly, perhaps Nienaber had a role. And there were a few odd bounces of the rugby ball, eg in Barrett’s try.

Apart from the disappointing scrumming, the Bools were horribly predictable near the oppo goal line. But we saw the same tendencies in the Boks vs Ireland last year. Where we scored 24 points in the second test….all off Pollard’s boot.

The tactics are okay if the it’s the Boks and the win…but not okay if it’s the Bools and they lose. It’s dead head rugby either way

Mozart

Lots of criticism of the Bools tactics….but they are the Springbok rugby tactics. Defend, kick and scrum. Today Wessels was dominated so the scrums never worked…and the tactical kicking was poor. But here are some stats which might surprise you:

The Springboks do NOT play a similar game plan to what was used yesterday by White. You refuse to accept that the game plan used by Meyer and Coetzee were changed drastically by Erasms and claim the kick and chase game is still what it was in 2015 - when you called it "traditional Springbok rugby".

Under White in 2007 it was the same as 2015 - accept in the Round Robin matches where Jones presence was clear - but White himself claimed that perhaps he is to be blamed for not been able to win in play-off matches and finals since 2007. It was confirmed when Smit wrote in his book about the 2007 final - namely there were NO provision for attacking rugby by planning for attacks that could be used to score tries.

Fact is there were one example in 2007 and what happened yesterday thrice, In 2007 the Springbks only attack ended up on the five meter line and the forwards tried repeatedly to score until the Springboks lost ball possession. It did not happen yesterday once - it happened at least 3 times, The Bulls backline did not line up for such a pofential attack oppomttiy situation where the balls could be past to them - most of the players were trying to become part of the fiorwards tying to score tries, Needless to say in all three occassions the result were the same - in the end no tries scored and no successful backline attack.

So please stop your twisted desciptions as to what happened in matches and when you make sure that stories about what happened under Ersmus is not just twssted BS. The Sprinboks won the first test against the Irish and lost the second one by 1 point due to two dropkicks they made - not by 25 points yesterday, Get real.

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Moz that is absolute bullshit, the only time the Boks played a predominantly kicking game was post Covid as Rassie said they had to keep it simple as no rugby had been played for a while

The Boks kick it no more or less than any other top sides out there these days in fact if memory serves me correctly we kick it less than most of the sides

The Bulls were given piss poor direction in that final

I thought Wessels at scrum time conceded the advantage every time on the engage, he has plenty to learn - I guess player hooker one week then loosehead the next is not serving his development that well

Goosen channel was also targeted early on where he was exposed defensively only because he had big guys physically dominating him

No plan was put in place to counter that obvious weakness

Dave

I agree with you and stay with what I wrote, about the match.

The other BS story is the travel issue, There is an hour time difference between Ireland and SA time in NH Summers and that does not affect the players in the same way as flights to Australia and New Zealand do. Being in Ireland for 4 or 5 days before the match should have had no impact on the match on Saturday.

These players spend their lives travelling it’s no longer an excuse

Travel didn't affect Munster or Glasgow in 2023 and 2024 finals.

It's so damn sad to see the absolute lack of IQ in SA rugby.

And if it hasn't changed by now it likely never will.

I maintain, Swys and Akkerman were the best coaching duo we've ever had.

They knew how to balance attacking responsibility between backs and forwards. No other coach before or since has come close to figuring that out...in SA.

It was Springbok rugby….how many times have we seen the bull like charges at the line without an offload. Oddly the Bools do offload well, but when the chips were down in the final they reverted to charging the ramparts. Everybody got the ball standing still as well.

As for the travel of course it affects your metabolism. Anybody who has flown UK/SA knows that.

Just the usual the stupid comments by those who are anti Jake

As for kicking, here are the WC kick/runstats in the knockouts:

NZ 18%/ Boks30%

Eng 33%/Boks 30%

France 13%/ Boks 25%

Draw your own conclusions. We play the same game as England….not France or NZ. Set pieces/kick/defend.

We score tries from mauls and turnover pressure. When the Boks are in the oppo 25 and have to construct a try they look much like the Bools did yesterday.

As for the travel of course it affects your metabolism. Anybody who has flown UK/SA knows that.

It does but given the results of the last two years, it can't be used as an excuse.

Just the usual the stupid comments by those who are anti Jake

I'm not anti Jake, I've defended him in the past, but I found his attitude after the game defeatist. If he was like that before the match all it would have done is undermine the team's confidence.

I suspect that White will be obless by the end of June 2025 with a new coach to be appointed qithin a week or two since the URC tournament in 2025-26 starting on 26 August 2025.

I will be he first to wish him well for the future .if that happens.

18% vs 30 is probably all of 3 more kicks in a whole game - this notion that we kick so much more than other sides is a load of rubbish - chances are you are going to play it more conservatively in WC knock out games anyway

I bet the % are closer in non WC games

We score tries just like other sides do - maul tries are high on the list of all sides. Our wings have the highest potential f strike rates for a reason

This rubbish about the Bulls players being inferior to the Leinster players is also rubbish - Irish caps and all - well that made little impression on Northampton a few weeks ago

It’s about having the right gameplan and attitude - Jake has been pathetically defeatist and his post match analysis evidenced that. He should be sacked on the strength of his negativity - those Bulls had no chance given their coaches attitude

What happens when the Bulls face Leinster next season with his players having heard Jakes concessions

Player comparisons

Willie vs their 15 - I don’t even know his name - Willie all day long

Lowe vs Moodie - I’m taking Moodie despite Lowe being a class act

de Klerk vs their wing - again nothing in it

Ringrose vs Kriel - you take Ringrose for his experience but we know how good Kriel is so nothing in it

Vorster vs Jordie - Jordie all day long

Goosen v Pen - Goosen walks it

Papier vs their replacement 9 - Papier all day long

Wessels vs Porter - Porter gets it for his experience but Wessels has been awesome all season - a poor engagement in the final does not define him

Grobelaar vs Sheenan - Sheenan walks it but Grobelaar is damn good

Wilco vs their 3 - no contest Wilco blindfolded

Wiese vs McCarthy - nothing in it

JF vs Ryan - nothing in it

v Staaden vs vd Vlier - vd Vlier but v Staaden is a Bok

Nortje vs their 7 - nothing in it

Coetzee vs Conan - nothing in it

So Leinster have an edge but not to the point you concede - much like the Saints never did

It’s thanks to that pathetic defeatist attitude of Jake thst saw his team having no chance

Watson derangement syndrome

Oh is it now - which of these Leinster players are far superior to the Bulls and how come the Saints had no difficulty putting Leinster away huh?

Reality vs your bullshit

Let’s see:

Ringrose….Lion

Lowe…Lion

vd Flier…Lion

Sheehan…Lion

Conan…Lion

Kelleher…Lion

McCarthy…Lion

Porter…Lion

Ryan….Lion

So 10 Lions , Snyman the best #5 lock in the world and Jordie Barrett NZ’s incumbent 12.

Pretty much a Lions equivalent team. Reality vs your fantasies Dave. Get real man and fight against that Watson Derangement Syndrome. It’s screwed you up for 20 years, time to go cold turkey.