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The temptation to bring on Springbok legend Morne Steyn was always there, but in the end Chris Smith’s drop goal to put the Vodacom Bulls through to the semifinals of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship underlined the Bulls belief in the abilities of their own players.
There aren’t too many coaches who would not have brought the British and Irish Lions’ tamer onto the field for the final minutes, especially in those dying seconds when it became apparent they would be looking for the drop goal.
Steyn, of course, still holds the record for most drop goals in Super Rugby and few will forget more than a decade ago when he put three over to kill off the Crusaders in a Super Rugby semifinal.
But White’s hunch to leave Smith on the field paid off big time, as the Bulls snatched the win in the 84th minute and sent Loftus Versfeld into rapture after an epic game for the ages.
White admitted afterwards that Smith said he was “terrified” but still kept his nerve to put the kick over.
Those big match temperament moments are the difference between a successful season and disappointment, and on Saturday Smith, who had a patchy game at times, didn’t disappoint when it mattered.
It also underlined this Bulls’ team’s mantra. At times they look incredibly sloppy and allow the opposition back into the game, but they are a team of battlers. The fact that they looked at one point if they would allow the Sharks to steal the game away from them only further highlights just how much they have grown in a season where they were second from bottom only back in January.
White joked afterwards that Smith wasn’t the first flyhalf in a light blue jersey to use that drop kick, reminiscing to a time when Naas Botha’s drops were legendary on the same field.
“I’m not sure he was thinking about it. Chris probably had so much pressure he probably didn’t want to do it,” White smiled.
“He said to me, he was obviously terrified. The nice thing is that isn’t the first time we’ve seen a Northern Transvaal flyhalf drop a kick over.”
White said in the coaching box he never expected the drop kick, but rather that the Bulls would send the ball wide to try and score a try. That in itself shows just how the team has grown in their attacking structure as compared to Bulls’ teams of the past.
“I didn’t think they were going to do that, I thought they were going to score. If you look back a couple of plays before that, we were in the same situation and Cornal scored. All credit to them, they obviously summed up the situation and Chris Smith saw he could get it over the poles,” White explained.
“In the first half, I don’t know if you remember, he tried to kick a cross-kick to someone and it went out. Sometimes they made good decisions and sometimes it was bad decisions.
“I was thinking of putting Morne Steyn on but as it turned out, I kept the right guy on the field.”
In the end the Bulls squeaked home in a tight contest and White lamented the swings in the game that both side had, and felt for Sharks coach Sean Everitt, who he passed on his way into the post match press conference.
“That game changed in the last nine minutes – the last five of normal time and four of injury time. It must have changed five times. The times they were offside, and then they could quite easily be given a penalty when they had that breakaway and played inside to Henco Venter.
“That last scrum, when we were pushing them backwards, I thought he could give a scrum penalty there and again, I’m not blaming him. I’m just saying – the emotions in the coaches box, the one coach next to me is saying that’s a penalty and the other – that’s a penalty.
“But that’s the nice thing about emotions in sport. That’s why people come and watch and what is going to happen now is Bulls’ supporters will keep on coming back – because it was a fantastic game of rugby.
“If you look at the URC where we started, and people were sceptical of the URC, but now any supporter who wasn’t sure about the URC will look at that kind of game and say that’s the type of thing I could come and watch again.
“I saw Sean as he was walking out – it’s not nice and it could have been me if they had got a drop kick at the end. But that is sport.” And its the Bulls, through Smith’s kick, that get to live for another day.