Bulls director of rugby Jake White is recovering from emergency surgery to an abdominal problem, but he will be buoyed that his charges produced a strong performance to beat the Dragons 29-14 at Rodney Parade in Newport at the weekend.

White did travel with the team to Wales but had not been feeling well and stayed at the hotel instead of attending the match. Assistant coaches Werner Kruger and Russell Winter handled the match-day duties.

White’s condition deteriorated although he was able to return to South Africa before collapsing with severe abdominal pain on Sunday afternoon shortly after landing. It resulted in an emergency two-hour operation on Sunday evening.

The team arrived back at OR Tambo International Airport on Sunday mid-morning at 10.10am. Later in the day, White complained of debilitating stomach cramps and was rushed to a nearby hospital for medical attention, necessitating an emergency operation.

Taine Basham of the Dragons takes on Johan Goosen and Janko Swanepoel of the Bulls during their United Rugby Championship match at Rodney Parade in Newport, Wales, on 6 January 2023. (Photo: Ben Evans / Huw Evans Agency / Gallo Images)

“It is never nice to see one of our own down, but we are extremely confident that Jake is receiving the best medical attention available and our team of medical experts will provide him with all the necessary support he will need to make a full recovery,” Bulls chief executive Edgar Rathbone said.

“We would like to thank the hospital team, doctors and all those who rushed to offer their expertise and helped with attending to Jake. We have seen, first-hand, why South African medicine is rated among the best in the world.”

White will take a break from his duties until 8 February at least, as his condition is assessed over the coming weeks.

Kruger and Winter will prepare the team for this week’s European Champions Cup game against the Exeter Chiefs at Loftus and they go into that match in a confident mood.

The United Rugby Championship (URC) victory over the Dragons kept the Bulls in third place on the standings and ended a two-match losing streak.

Stormers struggle

The high-riding Stormers came back to earth with a 24-17 defeat in Glasgow against the Warriors on Sunday. It was a weak performance by the Cape side with Glasgow deservedly winning although it took a last-minute try from wing Sebastian Cancelliere — his second of the match — to get the job done.

Manie Libbok uncharacteristically missed four out of five shots at goal, while the Stormers’ usually rigid defence was breached too easily at times. The Warriors played much deeper behind the gain line to negate the full impact of the Stormers’ rush defence and it paid off.

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They were able to expose the defending URC champions out wide several times. Erstwhile Stormers centre Huw Jones had an excellent outing for Glasgow against his former team, creating two tries and adding one himself of the four the Scottish side scored.

Harold Forster of the Bulls scores during the United Rugby Championship clash with the Dragons in Newport, Wales, on 6 January 2023. (Photo: Mark Lewis / Huw Evans Agency / Gallo Images)

The Bulls’ Wandisile Simelane is tackled by Steff Hughes of the Dragons. (Photo: Mark Lewis / Huw Evans Agency / Gallo Images)

“We were poor in areas we didn’t want to be in. We probably over-committed to the defensive breakdowns. I thought we gave them a couple too many yards on defence when they carried off 10 and 9,” Stormers coach John Dobson said.

“It was just a very bad day at the office against a team that’s really on a roll.

“They went deep to get around us. They executed really well against our line speed. They carried well and we were very poor at making double tackles and slowing the ball down. Their ball was too fast.

“We have to give them credit, they knew we were going to come with our line speed and they got around us.”

The Stormers still occupy second on the standings despite the setback but are now 11 points behind log leaders Leinster, albeit with a game in hand.

Sharks streak ends

The Sharks had won five games in a row since Neil Powell took over as head coach from Sean Everitt, but Powell was absent on their short trip to Ireland to play Connacht.

The Durban side sent a largely second-string outfit to Ireland, retaining their top players such as Eben Etzebeth, Lukhanyo Am, Siya Kolisi, Bongi Mbonambi and Makazole Mapimpi for this weekend’s Champions Cup clash against Bordeaux on 14 January.

Stormers fullback Clayton Blommetjies cuts inside Huw Jones of the Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland, on 8 January 2023. (Photo: David Gibson / Fotosport / Shutterstock/BackpagePix)

Not surprisingly, the Sharks’ second stringers under stand-in coach Joey Mongalo, struggled with a near full-strength Connacht in cold conditions in Galway. They went down 23-12, which considering only three players out of the 23 have started regularly for the club this season, was not a bad outcome.

But they have dropped out of the top eight, to ninth on the standings — which is out of playoff position — although they have two games in hand over the three sides above them.

The Lions continued to struggle as they went down 33-3 at home to Munster, which has hurt their faint hopes of making the playoffs, although they are not completely out of it yet either. DM