White savours one of his best wins as Bulls sweat over Le Roux for URC final

The last time the Bulls lost a play-off match in cross continental competition it was the Jake White-inspired Brumbies who bucked the trend conquering Loftus and all inside it in 2013.

The feisty Brumby has since made way for the horns of a bull on White's tracksuit and that is exactly what he'll want to give Glasgow Warriors in Saturday's United Rugby Championship (URC) final at Loftus.

The Warriors pulled off a stunning 17-10 upset of Munster in front of the defending champions' home fans to book a place in the final.

A Bulls home final had been earmarked for the cavernous FNB Stadium in Soweto as it would have clashed with the presidential inauguration, but the latter will now take place on Wednesday thus paving the way for the Pretoria team to play at their Loftus fortress.

They kept their unblemished record in cross continental playoff matches intact against a team with vastly superior experience on Saturday.

While White has masterminded some stunning wins in his distinguished career his young team's 25-20 semifinal victory over the much-garlanded Leinster ranks high with the coach.

“This is one of the biggest wins I've had as a coach,” White said.

The Warriors will march to Pretoria in the hope their coach Franco Smith can express similar sentiment after next week's final.

Smith has continued the team's upward curve this season and the former Cheetahs mentor will do his credentials as a coach immeasurable good with a win at Loftus.

The Bulls will brace themselves for a considerable challenge from the hard-to-beat Warriors.

They may also be forced into more injury-induced changes. The injury that curtailed Willie le Roux's involvement in the semifinal will present White a potential headache ahead of the final.

“It’s not just an HIA [head injury assessment], he got whacked on his neck as well. We’ve also got to go and check and see how his neck is from an injury perspective.

“It’s obviously not great because we’ve also got Canan [Moodie] and Kurt-Lee [Arendse] out. If you’re picked for the Boks and play in the World Cup you don’t get to play for the Bulls every week,” White remarked, ironically.

The coach said Le Roux was outstanding in the semifinal. “To be fair, people underestimate his value — just from the way he talks on the field, and those kicks he did at the back there.

“But let’s see, I didn’t think with the back-three we had we’d be as good today, so opportunity comes next week for someone else, hopefully we’ll be able to put someone in his place if he’s not available.”

He was cautiously optimistic about Le Roux's prospects of playing in the final.

“You don’t want to play someone with a head injury. I’ve got kids — you don’t want to push guys into that situation; but who knows, maybe tomorrow it’s the neck that’s sore and when it heals he’ll be fine for HIA protocols.

“You don't want to play games with HIA. He may be fine but I'm not banking on that.”