Their primary objective achieved and with Ulster providing an assist by beating Leinster, the Bulls can ensure an extended home stand in the United Rugby Championship (URC) playoffs should they achieve a full haul of points in their final league match against the Sharks in a fortnight.
The Bulls beat Benetton 56-35, ensuring they would host a quarterfinal, but a few hours later it became rosier with Ulster’s 23-21 victory against Leinster, meaning the Bulls are now second on the table. Victory with a bonus point against the Sharks on June 1, would cement a home semifinal slot too, adding to the optimism Jake White expressed at the weekend.
“It’s one of those games — we want to win the conference too, which is why there is lots to play for against them,” the Bulls director of rugby said.
Though he explained that winning the SA Conference was the main goal, he said it was a useful indicator of the Bulls re-establishing themselves as the country’s top provincial side.
“We used to be the best side in SA but we’ve lost that mantle in the last two seasons.
“I’m hoping by Monday of the Sharks week that we reinforce the importance of winning something. It’s not that the conference is the thing you want to win, because people don’t really remember it, but you still want to be the best side in SA and we want to win that game against the Sharks and be the top SA side, which we haven't done for a few seasons,” said White.
The Bulls ran in nine tries, with right-wing Canaan Moodie scoring a hat-trick as the Bulls used a clinical start to keep Benetton at bay. The Italian club weren’t too displeased about the outcome having picked up a four-try bonus point of their own, which made for an excellent tour for them, that included the previous week’s historic triumph against the Sharks in Durban.
White wasn’t too concerned by his side conceding five tries and though there were some similarities with last week’s effort against Glasgow Warriors, when they let a 27-point lead shrink to six, the Bulls mentor didn’t feel his team were hanging on against the Italian side, like they were against the Scots.
“Last week it looked as though we were panicking. We went away from understanding that they needed to chase the game. I felt last week we started to defend 37-10 as a result and that's why it almost came back to bite us. We were in exactly the same situation today and continued to score points,” said White.
“This week we leaked a try in the 64th minute and another in the 74th minute — there’s a lot of changes, the cohesion is not the same — but there were blocks where we were a lot more in control than last week.”