Although the Bulls failed to qualify for the play-offs of the prestigious European Rugby Champions Cup tournament, there is a consolation prize at stake after Saturday’s good 48-7 victory against French macro club Stade Francais at Loftus Versfeld.

With this victory – their only in this year’s Champions Cup tournament – Jake White’s men will at least get a second chance to chase success in a major European competition.

Ruan Nortjé and his teammates managed to finish in fifth position in their Champions Cup group with their victory against the men from Paris, which means that according to the rules of the two major European tournaments, they do qualify for the play-off phase of the second-tier Challenge Cup competition in two months’ time.

It was clear that the Bulls were feeling the pressure from their fans ahead of Saturday’s game and the opportunity to qualify for the knockout stages of the Challenge Cup was good motivation for the team to get their season back on track. It wasn’t easy either, as according to the permutations they had to win by a large margin against the French visitors to finish above them on the log.

After White brought back all his big guns and, with the exception of Willie le Roux (leave) and Dawid Kriel (injured), probably fielded his best possible team against Stade Francais, they were ready to regain the favour of their supporters.

The match kicked off at 15:00 in typical warm January weather that Pretoria residents are accustomed to. However, the Bulls started at a good pace and quickly gained the upper hand over the visitors.

By half-time, Nortjé and his team were already 36-7 ahead after they had scored four times and were also awarded a penalty try. The crowd of only 10,000 spectators could therefore not be blamed if they had expected to see at least a score of more than fifty by the end of the match.

Unfortunately, old problems crept back in the second half and there was a noticeable decline in the quality of the Bulls’ play, especially after White sent on all his substitutes. They simply couldn’t build up the same momentum they managed in the first half.

In the end, however, it was a successful effort and with the points difference of 41, the Bulls moved past their French opponents on the log to qualify for the Challenge Cup play-off phase.

This means they have to travel to Europe again on the weekend of April 4-6 for a “Round of 16” Challenge Cup match against another French club, Bayonne.

Meanwhile, White’s men will turn their attention back to the United Rugby Championship (URC), where they will be involved in five consecutive local derbies from this coming Saturday (January 25) until March 1. The intervention of the Six Nations Championship in Europe has a major impact on these fixtures, where no teams will travel to and from South Africa for franchise-bound league matches for a period of approximately six weeks.

The Bulls kick off this phase of the URC on Saturday with a match against the Lions at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.

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