Bulls head onward full of confidence

The Vodacom Bulls head into week two of their Vodacom Super Rugby tour of Australasia full of confidence, and knowing that their playoff hopes are very much still alive.

While the Jaguares have emerged as the key threat to their hopes of winning the South African conference, their win over the Melbourne Rebels on Friday leads them into week two against the Brumbies brimming with confidence in their own abilities to make it two from two.

Both Australian games were targeted before the tour, especially as both Springboks Duane Vermeulen and Handre Pollard will return home after these games and the Bulls will need a new captain. A victory in Canberra will continue their march in a congested conference with just three games left in the competition.

It still seems a bit of a stretch to see the Bulls win the South African conference, especially on the form of the Jaguares, but the clean injury sheet in Melbourne and their ability to soak up pressure and counter-punch when it mattered was a typical performance “full of character” as coach Pote Human has put it.

“It was just lekker,” Human joked after the game as he looked ahead, with the same side likely to be kept for the second game of the tour as well.

But the breaking of the mental chains was probably the biggest factor for Human, who now believes his side can march forward with confidence as they swopped Melbourne for their base this week in Sydney.

“They now know they can do it,” Human said, “It has always been a mental thing for us to win overseas and that has now been broken. It is difficult to win in Canberra but the guys now know if they win there we will have beaten all four Australian franchises this season. If we do that we will stay on top of the conference.”

Rosko Specman’s electric pace and the performance of the pack was particularly pleasing for Human, while off the field the contract distractions seem to be coming to an end.

Marco van Staden and Ivan van Zyl both renewed their contracts with the Bulls, while now the management are only waiting now on decisions from Jannes Kirsten and Trevor Nyakane to contract offers. Andre Warner’s future may be elsewhere with the two Bok scrumhalves staying, and Hanro Liebenberg confirmed that he had signed at Leicester Tigers at the end of the season.

Still, as the other teams battled it out, the Bulls players took in the sights of Sydney this weekend, knowing that as starts to tours go, this was a pretty good one.

And given their poor history of playing abroad, winning your first game in three years will sure give you confidence for the rest of the tour.