Friday’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash at Parc Y Scarlets will be the sixth on the road for the Vodacom Bulls out of seven matches in all competitions.

Their only appearance at Loftus during this run was the Champions Cup match against Exeter, which the Bulls won 39-28 to set up their qualification for the round of 16.

While the Bulls did suffer a 31-7 loss to Lyon in the Champions Cup, they aren’t too despondent, especially after easing to a 29-14 win over Dragons in their most recent URC match.

“We are carrying a lot of confidence, even if last week didn’t go our way,” said Bulls loose forward Nizaam Carr, who captained the team against Lyon.

“One performance doesn’t define us as a group. We were going through a rough patch, but now we are training with a lot of confidence.

“We are excited and looking forward to Friday night’s game. We are hurting a bit and didn’t want to go down like that against Lyon, but that won’t kill our character or confidence.

“We will come out firing this weekend.”

Despite the Bulls only winning one of their away games during this period, Carr dismissed suggestions they don’t travel well.

“That isn’t the case,” Carr said.  “It will turn around for us. We are working on different plans, but we aren’t going away from what we do best.

“We have been challenged with our forward pack not being dominant, but we are improving. You need to start well and the first 10 or 20 [minutes] in the second half is also important. These are all things we are looking at.

“The way we prepare away from home is exactly how we do at home. We are doing everything we can to get the win.”

Scrum coach Werner Kruger is well aware of what to expect on Friday. Having spent five years as a Scarlets player during his career, Kruger wants to see better consistency at scrum time.

“Lyon got their maul set and put us under loads of pressure at the scrum. That’s not what we as a Bulls team stands for. We are keen to turn it around on Friday night, putting in a better Bulls performance and do what we do best – impose ourselves on opponents.

“I just feel from a scrum point of view we are inconsistent. It went well against the Stormers, but we backed off [against] the Sharks. The same happened against Dragons and then Lyon.

“It’s more about getting the players in the right mental space and keep them there. It’s difficult to perform in this block, but we want to finish it off on a high.

“There has been a couple of coaching changes since I left, but knowing the Scarlets, they want to play a running game but they are still physical. It will be nice to return to a stadium where I have good memories.”

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