Jake White has his fingers crossed that the Glasgow Warriors, under the stewardship of Franco Smith, are no match for the Vodacom Bulls at altitude on Saturday afternoon.
White’s charges are bracing themselves for an epic clash in the Vodacom URC at Loftus Versfeld, where they have only lost once this season. Victory for the Bulls, in fourth place on the overall log, would boost their chances of hosting a quarter-final.
The Pretoria outfit have scored the most tries in the 2023-24 URC (68), yet top-of-the-table Glasgow are joint second with 64 and are the best defensive team with three rounds of the regular season remaining.
Smith has been a revelation at the Scottish club, adding an attacking dimension to Glasgow’s armour. Speaking in a Bulls conference on Friday, White acknowledged the potency of the league leaders while mulling their possible strategic approach on the Highveld.
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“You saw what happened the last time we played at 2pm against one of the top sides, the game could never get going,” the director of rugby told reporters. “It’s quite an interesting complexity because if they go away from what’s working for them, in some ways it’s not them.
“If they continue to do what they do well at altitude at 2pm in the afternoon, they could run out of legs. That’s just the way, it’s no secret.
“You ask any player who has played at Loftus and he’ll tell you, in the second half it feels like your legs fall off. It’ll be interesting to see, I’m not sure they’ll come with an attitude that they want to try and run us off our feet, which is what they’ve been good at.
“Last year [in Glasgow] they really caught us, we landed there and before we knew it that 4G pitch was so quick we couldn’t get our hands on the ball. It’s something that they do well.
“It’ll be interesting to see what Franco does tomorrow but we’ve got to expect both – that if they want to play quickly we’ve got to be good enough, and if they slow it down then we’ve got to control the tempo.
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“The 50 percent of the time that we have the ball we play like we want to play.”
White versus Smith is a battle of two veteran tacticians, both with international experience and leading the charge into this season’s URC playoffs. A former Springbok, Smith also played the last of his nine Tests at Loftus against the All Blacks in 1999.
“I’m getting so old now I was in the coaching staff when he played under Nick Mallett,” White added. “He was playing for the Boks and won the Tri-Nations when I was in that coaching staff. So I’ve known him a long, long time.
“He’s played here, was a very good Bulls player – I think he became a Springbok out of here as well. So he’s got fond memories and he’ll understand … he’ll know more than anything what it’s like to play at Loftus at 2pm in the afternoon on a Saturday.
“He’s an astute coach, he’s done well – he’s taken this team to the top of the log; there’s only two teams in Scotland and they don’t have lots and lots of registered players, and you’ve got to give credit where it’s due.
“But the one thing I’ve learnt about rugby is that it’s not whether I know Franco or he knows me, it’s about what the players do tomorrow.”
