Cape Town - When the Bulls were walloped 31-3 by Leinster in their United Rugby Championship (URC) opener, chief executive Edgar Rathbone would have been a worried man.
While the Irish giants have dominated the competition for many years, the result was a serious wake-up call for the Bulls, who had won two Currie Cup titles in 2021.
But coach Jake White and his team recovered to the extent that they are hosting Saturday’s URC quarter-final against the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld, and Rathbone believes there will be a capacity crowd of 25 000.
“You refer to one dark day in Europe – I think there were three. We always knew that it was going to be a tough competition, and what I respect of our team and especially the coaching staff is that they came back in the debrief of that specific tour and said, ‘Listen, we are going to have to make some game plan changes, to how we play’,” Rathbone said yesterday.
“Specifically a lot more ball-inhand and a lot more tempo – that’s what surprises most of the European teams, especially that first Leinster game. They started implementing that, and obviously the team first struggled to get the hang of it. When you change things, it takes a bit of time.
“But as soon as those new game plans kicked in, we saw the results in the competition. The quality of rugby in my mind has been exceptional.”
Not only are they in the playoffs, but the Bulls have also qualified for the lucrative European Rugby Champions Cup next season.
That may mean that they will need three separate teams to compete for the Champions Cup, United Rugby Championship and Currie Cup, so some serious reinforcements may need to be made over the next few weeks.
The Bulls have already signed Springbok wing Sbu Nkosi, while lock Ruan Vermaak arrived from Japan a few weeks ago as well, and Rathbone assured fans that there is room for more recruits if required.
The Sharks have set the tone already and have a star-studded squad filled with top Boks, and are awaiting the arrival of Eben Etzebeth and Rohan Janse van Rensburg as well.
“Most clubs, if not all, have been under the cap significantly and are carrying credits on the cap. From my information currently, there is not one club on the 50 maximum players,” Rathbone said.
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“We are managing it quite well currently, and there is a task team set up to look at possible changes going into next year. But I think the system currently is working, and the results on the field have shown that over the past few months. I don’t expect massive changes … maybe a slight increase in the number of players being contracted.
“We haven’t received any details around the Champions Cup, so it’s very hard to comment on it – and where it fits into the season, along with the URC and Currie Cup.
“Only once we get that information can we really comment about how you will manage the squads between those competitions – will the Currie Cup be a single or double round? When will it be? That will impact your playing numbers and what is needed.
“We’ve got plenty of credits on our (salary) cap. We are under the cap this year … substantially as well. Our model currently is that our budget for the players is not determined only by the salary cap, but also by fixed revenue.
That is effectively sponsorship and distributions from SA Rugby out of broadcasting rights, etc.
“Your flexible revenue is ticket and suite sales, and as we’ve all seen over the last two years, that can disappear pretty quickly. Our restraint that we look at is not the cap, but we look for revenues to match what we want to spend on squad numbers, etc.”
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