Interesting:Jake White says the only way the Bulls can be consistent at home and away is to sign this Springboks star.

Jake White says that the Bulls beat Leinster in the United Rugby Championship (URC) without 28 internationals.

Leinster’s unbeaten start to the season was brought to an abrupt halt in round 13 when they faced the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld, falling to a 21-20 defeat.

The Leo Cullen-led side arrived in South Africa without the majority of the players who represented Ireland in the Six Nations with younger squad members and academy stars filling in along with their foreign signings.

While White had many of his top players available to him, he was without the services of several injured players like Johan Goosen, Elrigh Louw and Ruan Nortje.

RG Snyman shouldn’t be playing for Leinster

But the former Springboks boss insists that he was still without over 20 internationals as unlike Leinster, the Bulls are unable to retain the services of Test stars who ultimately sign deals with overseas clubs.

The Bulls have now won nine of their 13 matches in the URC this season but two of those defeats have come at home with the Pretoria-based side also losing to Northampton Saints in the Investec Champions Cup at Loftus

When asked how he could change the team’s form at home, White stated that getting former Bulls players back to the franchise would do it, pointing to the impact that Leinster signings RG Snyman and Jordie Barrett have made.

“I sign guys like RG Snyman to come back here and I do that,” he replied.

“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

“Our home form is not a switch. I’m going to keep saying that if we had RG and guys who should be playing in South Africa, our home form would be completely different because we would be stronger and our team would have more depth.

“And that takes nothing away from the guys that came off the bench today. I’m really happy for them but I’m longing for the day that I can stand in the change room and see 23 Springboks sitting there. That’s my pipe dream while I’m at the Bulls.”

Bulls had over 20 internationals ‘missing’

Still White admits that had his team failed to beat Leinster without their Irish internationals, it would rightly be considered a failure for the Bulls.

“Of course, but they had 16 internationals missing but I think we had about 28 internationals missing because they are all playing overseas,” he said.

“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.

“So it’s easy to say they missing all their internationals, well let me tell you, if I brought every Bulls player back here, we would also have about 20 internationals, Handre Pollard, RG, Jesse Kriel and so on. The point is there are so many players, the list just goes on and on and on. We have a lot of players playing abroad that would make us so much better

“The narrative is that if those players were here that the current guys wouldn’t be getting a chance – well, maybe not but don’t you think that if RG was playing for us he would teaching JF van Heerden and Reinhardt Ludwig at training is as he is there training with them and teaching there.”