What made it even tougher for the Bulls was that a few hours before kick-off they were forced to make last-minute changes to their team after three players fell ill.

Boeta Chamberlain, Stedman Gans, and Sebastian de Klerk were late withdrawals from the team after falling ill, and this led to Zak Burger, Chris Smit, and Harold Vorster being drafted into the squad. At the same time, Keagan Johannes, normally a scrumhalf, was moved from the bench to flyhalf.

The win and the Lions’ 24-6 defeat to Leinster in Dublin shot the Bulls back up to third on the log.

The Bulls coach, Jake White, said it was once again important to adapt to the situation and he is proud of how they managed to grind to a win despite the unforeseen circumstances.

“It’s the first time in a long time, and I wouldn’t say it’s never happened, but we had to make significant changes,” said White.

‘He just got real sick – cold shivers – so we had to put him on a drip’

“I mean, you don’t often change your quarterback. If we use that analogy, then all of a sudden we have no Johan Goosen and Jaco van der Walt who are both injured, and then we have Boeta now, who all of a sudden got sick.

“I don’t know what it is. He just got real sick – cold shivers – so we had to put him on a drip. Then literally three hours before kick-off, we decided we were going with Keagan at 10, which meant we had to change our nine as well because he was covering nine and 10. We had to change our bench, because, all of a sudden, we didn’t have a reserve 10 if something happened.

Johan Goosen. Photo: Morgan Piek

“What I’m really happy about is that we found a way to adapt, you know, often sporting teams talk about how you’ve got to adapt, and you have to be aware that you can’t always control everything, and then to get a result like that at the end of the game … Obviously, you can imagine the changeroom is very buoyant and very happy, and for a guy like Keagan, he is over the moon that he could contribute or start as a 10.

“There was a minute and a half left, and we ended up winning the game. So, you can only feel proud when you see your players doing that at the end of a game.”

Due to the international break – the European Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup – the URC will resume at the end of November.

OFM News/Morgan Piek cg/mvh