Bulls get another crack at Edinburgh

The Bulls have a chance to settle the score against Edinburgh when the teams clash in their United Rugby Championship quarter-final at Loftus in two weeks.

The fixture is fitting after the Bulls narrowly missed their opportunity to be the first South African side to beat Edinburgh in Scotland when they lost 34–28 in their Challenge Cup quarter-final last month.

As it happened, the Sharks took that honour with an 18–17 win thanks to a last-minute try in the URC the next weekend.

Edinburgh were the only team the Bulls lost to in their history-making month-long tour in Europe recently. The Bulls did, however, get the better of the Scottish outfit when they hosted them in their only league phase URC match this season, held at Loftus in September (final score 22–16).

Edinburgh ahead 3–2

All in all, Edinburgh have won three of the five clashes between the sides, though the team playing at home has always emerged victorious. That means the Bulls have a perfect record against Edinburgh at Loftus, and will want to capitalise on that in their knockout match.

The game holds even more significance with Edinburgh being coached by Jake White’s former assistant coach at the Sharks and consultant with the Bulls, Sean Everitt.

The Pretoria side are now on a four-game winning streak in the URC while Edinburgh come from two victories against Connacht and Ulster, which secured them their seventh-spot finish.

The Bulls smashed Dragons nine tries to three at Loftus on Saturday (final score 55–15). In the end, the bonus-point win did not influence where they finished on the table (second), with Leinster beating Glasgow Warriors 13–5 at Aviva Stadium in Ireland later that day.

Bulls find a new ‘why’ going into play-offs

After the Dragons game, White said the death of former Bulls star Cornal Hendricks – whom they paid homage to during the game – had become the ‘why’ they needed to progress to the play-offs.

He said teams sometimes needed an emotional focal point to direct their energy and lift their game.

Bulls flanker Nama Xaba explained after being awarded man of the match that it had been an emotional week for everyone in the squad.

“We wanted to come out today and show the energy that is there in training in games. I think we were able to do that,” he said.

White added: “So job done. I always say you need to get into the play-offs. We’ve done that and are in the fortunate position of being in second position. You get judged on the next three games. That’s when you want to be at your best.”