Despite a thrilling first-half performance, which saw the visitors lead 26-19 at the break, with four tries that earned the visitors a consolation bonus point, the Ospreys would be overwhelmed at times by the South African’s speed and physicality.
In high altitude, the errors and ring rust would tell in the second period particularly as Johan Ackermann’s side would run in a total of nine tries for a convincing win.
“It smarts a little bit,” said Jones after the contest. When you look at the half-time scoreline and look at the way we played we deserved the lead.
“We knew there was going to be spells in the game where we needed to be clinical and accurate.
“We had moments in the first-half where we self-harmed with the balls in the red zone, and unfortunately into the second half that continued.
“With a side as good as the Bulls, at this altitude, and with the lack of game time we’ve had, it was always going to tell. We were unable to tidy it up enough.
“We spent too much time without the ball, and if you do that against South African teams, it’s always going to be difficult.”
Despite the loss, Jones feels there are positives to take and will look to focus on fixing some of the basic errors that cost his side before the Ospreys travel to Cape Town to face DHL Stormers on Friday night.
“I’m positive going into the game [against Stormers],” he continued. They have come off the back of winning at home against a strongish Leinster team on paper.
“They really exposed the errors in Leinster’s game, and it was a little bit like that with us today.
“They picked on our errors and scored. They will be looking to do the same again, and we will be looking to give them less opportunities to do that.
“There are some pretty easy fixes for us to give ourselves a better chance of staying in touch with the opposition, but we know the Stormers are a strong team. Every match we have had against them has been brutal encounter, physically and from a speed perspective.
“We know what is coming, but we are excited to be out here. We know we have put a decent marker out there in terms of how we want to play the game with the ball.
“There are some incredibly strong moments there in our 22, but also some soft ones, which we can tidy up on.
“That is the focus now for the week. We are not trying to reinvent the wheel, but will on what we can fix in a short space of time.”
[Lead image: Ospreys Rugby]
