Bulls go into 'knock-out' mode
The Bulls, having woken from their mid-season slumber, have taken a play-off mentality ahead of their crunch encounter with the Brumbies.
After their Australasian tour, in which they managed just four losing bonus points, the Bulls are hovering precariously in ninth place on the standings – four points away from a play-off spot.
However, defeat against the Brumbies in Pretoria on Friday could leave them with a near impossible task in their three remaining matches – of which two are after the June break.
Despite their current position, Bulls coach Frans Ludeke believes they can ensure their destiny remains in their own hands if the overcome a very dangerous Brumbies team at Loftus Versfeld.
"For everybody it is an important weekend," Ludeke told rugby365, when discussing Super Rugby's Round 15 action.
"The teams are not separated by much, with just 10 points between the Brumbies in second place and the Blues in 10th place.
"It is a great situation for the competition [that it is so tight] – it is almost a knock-out situation for all these game."
Ludeke admitted his charges will have to be on top of their game and be able to handle the pressure of the situation on Friday.
"That is what has been good for us the last two weeks, since we came back from tour," he said of victories against the vastly improved Cheetahs and Stormers.
"The pressure was on and we faced teams who had nothing to lose," Ludeke told rugby365, adding: "We had a taste of that the past two weeks.
"However, the Brumbies are a lot more clinical in terms of what they do, so that will make it a much tougher challenge for us."
The Bulls are aware of the precariousness of their situation, but Ludeke believes it will bring the best out of his players.
"We have players who have been in these pressure situations before," he said, adding: "We know we will have to be accurate and not just for 10 minutes, but for 80 minutes."
The Bulls will again rely on their pragmatic approach – which is to get into the right areas and play from there.
"We were much better against the Stormers, in terms of turning our opportunities into points.
"That is what we have to build on and then also ensure our defence is spot on against the Brumbies. We have been good on defence, but we know that this weekend we will require a solid all-round game."
In a few of their recent games the Bulls allowed the opposition to get a head start, although they came back strongly in the second half of their encounters with the Cheetahs and Stormers.
While Ludeke feels it was only "minor facets" of their game that were letting them down, he admitted they will have to be very accurate against a clinical Brumbies team.
"If you look how the team reacted and responded to that [slow starts], that is important," the Bulls mentor said.
"The players stayed calm and got back into the game.
"It is important this week that we don't fall behind again, by 10 or 13 points, so it is important for us to make a good start."
By Jan de Koning
