Bulls must continue to do what works for them

Forward dominance has driven the success of the Bulls this season, even against Europe’s best teams in games away from home.

They failed to use this to their advantage in their EPCR campaign, winning two out of six games there. But the Bulls have been the South African team finding the most success in the league phase of the United Rugby Championship (URC) – a tournament they haven’t won, though they’ve reached the final twice in three years.

The Pretoria side have statistically had their best season, securing their most wins (14) and most points (68).

Now set to face old rivals Edinburgh, who knocked them out of the Challenge Cup in the quarter-finals this year, the Bulls will be doing much analysis on what will get them over the line. Should they win that, they will play against the winner between the Sharks and Munster at Loftus on 7 June.

It worked against Leinster

The Bulls have not had the benefit of star winger Kurt-Lee Arendse, who is still on sabbatical in Japan, while fellow Springbok speedster Canan Moodie hasn’t been at his best or available in every game due to injury.

Still, their backline players have proved threatening, if not always shining like the line-ups in other teams.

So it has been their forward pack that have proven the difference. Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Cobus Wiese (oftentimes playing lock), Wilco Louw, Akker van der Merwe, Francois Klopper and Mornay Smith have been devastating in the front, while former Springbok Gerhard Steenkamp has battled injury.

They have been backed by solid locks and loose forwards who are also Springboks pretty much across the board.

After the Bulls secured victory against previously undefeated Leinster thanks to a scrum turnover in March, proving they had the best pack in the competition, director of rugby Jake White said they “can’t be known as a team that can just maul and scrum”.

“I don’t want us to be a team that goes into our shell and we always think we are going to scrum penalties and maul penalties and therefore win the game,” he said at the time.

Bulls build on their already-formidable forward dominance

However, Springbok loose forward Marco ‘Eskom’ van Staden and flank Jannes Kirsten have typified Bulls players’ views that they should only build on what works for them, at least when it comes to the set-piece and forward battles.

They do not have the overall performance to worry about, as White does, and any player will tell you they can only focus on their own performance on the day.

But the Bulls have only had two away and two home defeats this URC season for a reason. Now it is up to them to maintain their consistency against the best.