A frustrated Jake White is determined to “fight” for Johan Grobbelaar, whose dubious red card marred the Vodacom Bulls’ first defeat of the 2024-25 URC on Friday.
Speaking post-match from Llanelli, White didn’t hold back after the Bulls’ 23-22 loss to Scarlets at Parc y Scarlets. Grobbelaar’s red came in the 66th minute after a collision with Marnus van der Merwe, who had fallen into the Bulls hooker while evading another tackle.
Grobbelaar became the second Bulls player controversially sent off in as many weeks, following centre David Kriel’s dismissal against the Ospreys in round 4 of the URC.
On Friday, the Bulls led 19-10 at half time thanks to tries from Canan Moodie, Zak Burger, and Kurt-Lee Arendse. Despite their dominance in the first half, the Scarlets mounted a comeback, with winger Tom Rogers scoring the match-winning try after Grobbelaar’s red card left the Bulls short-handed.
“The bottom line is that I don’t think that was a red card,” White told reporters. “I will look at that and I will fight for the player.”
White emphasised that red cards should be reserved for truly dangerous play. “If it’s malicious, off the ball, and it’s genuinely a red card, then we must never take that away from rugby,” he said.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Bulls seeing ridiculous red?
“The red card wasn’t put in place for rugby incidents to take place. If we say it’s a rugby incident, then it becomes very different.”
White expressed his frustration with the increasing complexity of rugby’s disciplinary procedures. “I seem to be spending most of my week at the judiciary meetings, which is not helping the coaching,” he noted.
“There is so much debate now. There are red cards for 20 minutes, there’s head contact, there are [new] gum guards that are coming out, so you’ve got to find the middle road.”
While White acknowledged the importance of strictness on head contact for player safety, he stressed how challenging it has become for coaches.
“It’s a difficult one because it is a game where people run hard at each other and there is little time for getting it right and getting it wrong,” he explained.
“I saw things tonight [Friday] that would’ve been fine last week and I saw things tonight that wouldn’t have been good enough last week, that’s why it is so frustrating as a coach.”
The Bulls will need to regroup quickly before bringing the curtain down on a three-week European tour against Benetton in Treviso next week.
Photo: Shaun Roy/Sportsfile via Getty Images
