Following the Bulls’ 63-24 victory over Zebre in the United Rugby Championship clash at Loftus, here’s our five takeaways.

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Keagan Johannes was at the centre of the Bulls‘ effort, producing a man-of-the-match performance and it was his 50/22 that led to the opening try for Sergeal Peterson, with Zak Burger following soon after as the men from Pretoria raced into a 14-0 lead.

Jacopo Trulla benefitted from the unpredictability of the rugby ball’s bounce before Alessandro Fusco landed a lovely drop goal from a Bulls goal-line dropout.

However, Zebre found themselves trailing 28-10 at the break with Stravino Jacobs and Jan-Hendrik Wessels grabbing scores before half-time.

Second-half tries from Giovanni Montemauri and Tommaso Di Bartolomeo either side of Marco van Staden’s score gave Zebre some hope but the Bulls flexed their depth with the bench playing a pivotal role as Marcell Coetzee, Harold Vorster, Petersen and David Kriel rounded out an impressive victory to move into second place on the URC table for the time being.

Johannes is the short-term answer

Since Johan Goosen’s injury, White has been crying out for someone to step into his void and make the jersey his own. Boeta Chamberlain was given the nod first to stake his claim, and then it was the turn of veteran Springbok Willie le Roux.

The latter made a good fist of it after the former failed and just before Le Roux went under the knife Keagan Johannes took on the task and impressed in the victory over Leinster.

Today was just another indication that he should be entrusted with the role going forward as he produced a sterling display of game management and attacking excellence. Sure, there are work-ons, particularly with his distribution where he can switch off with a poor pass, but until Goosen is back, White must back Johannes and let him develop in the role.

There are a plethora of ‘petit générals’ – a scrum-half who can also play 10 – in France and while there have been examples of such players in South Africa, like Sanele Nohamba and Ruan Pienaar, they are few and far between but, with South African teams enduring long seasons now, versatility is crucial.

Injuries often happen at the worst possible time and having a player like Johannes gaining experience in such a pivotal role while winning can be crucial for the Bulls going forward. Not only did he run the backline well, he kicked superbly out of hand with his 50/22, leading to the opening try while he got good meterage from his line kicks. He has taken the placekicking duties over from David Kriel and was accurate there too.

When he left the pitch, the Bulls were up 49-24 and much of that lead came through the makeshift fly-half’s efforts.

Zebre’s revival

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With the future of the club up in the air after being put up for sale, one would not have blamed Zebre for having another season like they endured in 2023/24, winning just once and drawing another.

But just like the Melbourne Rebels in Super Rugby last year, the adversity has inspired the underdogs who looked primed to avoid propping up the table, winning five of their 14 matches so far.

The Italian club is out of the play-off picture now after entering the weekend with a 1% chance of making the knockout stages, but the manner in which Zebre has played in recent rounds needs to be applauded.

They have not been shy to throw the ball around from just about anywhere, but when needed, they have been tactically sharp. Their three-game winning streak was a real highlight of their season, but one should not write them off completely from here.

On today’s evidence, they could still influence the final standings with matches against the Glasgow Warriors, Edinburgh, Leinster and Connacht lying ahead. There will be no play-off pressure on a side that already plays with such freedom as they look to attract investors.

They are no longer just the weekly whipping boys but entertainers and a dark horse that can claim more than just the odd upset.

There were so many periods in this game when they could have thrown in the towel and let the Bulls rampage over them, but this isn’t the Zebre team of old; they don’t just roll over anymore.

Stupidity still hurts White’s charges

After the victory over Leinster last time out, White was still left fuming over stupid decisions from his players that almost cost them the match.

He zoned in on the cards to Alulutho Tshakweni and Seb de Klerk in particular.

“I’m not going to condone red cards, yellow cards, stupidity… Because when we get to the knockout stages, we will lose those games,” White said in the aftermath.

“We need to be more smart. We can’t be stupid and think that we are going to get to the back end of the competition and win it if we don’t make better decisions in those situations.

“It’s stupid things, stupid – unbelievably stupid. New Zealanders talk about game smartness, and I think that is the bottom line.

“You’ve got to understand where you are on the field, what the score is, what your job is…

“That smartness is also something a player has to learn. You can’t coach him every single thing about his role. The maul try and the yellow card… There is a lot of effort in that. You know how tired you get when you have maul, scrum, maul, scrum.”

Today he may well have the same complaint with rookie lock JF van Heerden getting sin-binned for a push off the ball. It was quite a harsh sanction for the second rower as a penalty may well have been sufficient but nonetheless, it falls squarely in the stupid category.

It was unnecessary and put his side under unneeded pressure with Zebre getting some sort of parity at scrum time when he departed and managed to grab a try while he was off the pitch.

Today the stupid yellow card mattered little but in tighter affairs and against far more formidable teams, it will.

Bulls charge towards home play-off run

White will be keeping a close eye on proceedings at Scotstoun later this evening as his side clinched second place, moving ahead of the Glasgow Warriors. Franco Smith’s side face a potential banana skin in the form of the Lions.

Still, the Bulls have impressed so far this season despite their lengthy away run of fixtures followed by a bottleneck of SA derbies.

They now head back on the road with Bayonne in the Challenge Cup but when they return to URC action, it will be a really difficult run-in with Munster and Glasgow in the north before returning home for Cardiff and Dragons.

White will fancy his chances with key Springboks set to return from injury while players like Marcell Coetzee, Mornay Smith, Wilco Louw and so many others are hitting seriously good form. Their depth was highlighted yet again as the blue Bomb Squad came on and blew Zebre away.

The return of Ruan Nortje was a real success, while Wilco Louw was strong yet again. Nizaam Carr was fantastic, as too was the likes of Embrose Papier, Akker van der Merwe and Marco van Staden as the Bok-heavy bench fired the Bulls to a fantastic win.