Leinster's season-long unbeaten run came to a merciless end last Saturday, when a last-minute Bulls penalty saw Leo Cullen's men handed a one-point 21-20 defeat in Pretoria.
Regarded as one of the most difficult places to play in world rugby, Leinster have now lost three consecutive games at Loftus stadium and also succumbed to their last regular season league loss there last year.
Leinster typically use the two-week tour of South Africa to blood new players and rest their international stalwarts for European action. A decision which in recent years has seen a weakened team suffer against one of the best sides in the URC.
While in bygone seasons that was used as justification for their struggles in the South African capital, this season saw three test standard internationals available to Cullen; RG Snyman, Jordie Barrett and Rabah Slimani, all of whom started Saturday's loss.
That said, Leinster were still without their complement of international stars who appeared in Ireland's Six Nations campaign, a factor which small factions of their support made known to Bulls fans.
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18 February 2025; RG Snyman, right, and Jordie Barrett during a Leinster Rugby open training session at Dundalk RFC in Dundalk, Louth. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Jake White claims Bulls are missing as many international players as Leinster
Addressing the idea that Leinster were weakened by the absence of their internationals, Bulls boss Jake White rubbished the narrative that Leinster's international absences took away from his side's win, insisting the Bulls were also affected by missing internationals who were plying their trade internationally.
"Of course, but they had 16 internationals missing but I think we had about 28 internationals missing because they are all playing overseas," explained White.
They are not here. If we had all those players back here then we would have 28 internationals as well and I’m not even talking about the ones that are here that are injured.
If you are in a competition where a team like Leinster are bringing in players like Slimani, RG and Barrett – you have to compare apples with apples. We have x amount of players playing overseas and then you have got to pick from within, we don’t have international players I understand that – I’m not saying it’s a good or a bad thing – we don’t sign Kiwis and Fijians.
The Bulls have now won 9 of 13 URC fixtures, although two of their four losses have come at the typically impenetrable Loftus Stadium.
Answering questions on his side's home form, White claimed it was imperative he was able to lure South African players like RG Snyman back to their native country.
I sign guys like RG Snyman to come back here and I do that, and now you look at me like I’m crazy but look at RG, shouldn’t he be playing for the Bulls?
Then home form and everything falls into place. We saw that game tonight, the one guy in the forwards that controls everything is RG and the one guy in the backs controlling everything is Jordie Barrett.
Now between them, they have probably got more Test caps than we have URC games. So don’t underestimate that when you have a tighthead prop that has played for France, you have a lock that has won two World Cups, and a centre that controls all of the attack – and he moved from 12 to 15, they didn’t take him off because they realise how important he is to their team.
Unfortunately for Leinster, even the addition of Snyman, Barrett and Slimani wasn't enough to see Leinster get over their South African stumbling block.
Leo Cullen will now be hoping that another loss to the Bulls isn't the beginning of another trying end to the season but a mere tight result in tough conditions.
