Bulls have the depth for Super marathon
The expansion remains a heated topic of debate, with very few supporters of the SANZAAR brains trust's latest handiwork.
Despite all the protestations to the contrary from SANZAAR officials, the additional travelling to Japan, Singapore and Argentina will have a massive impact on player welfare.
However, Marais is confident that the Bulls not only have the right approach, but also the depth to deal with a season that kicks off on February 26 (February 27 for the Bulls) and finish on August 6 (with a June break for internationals thrown into the mix).
The Bulls – playing in the South Africa One conference that also features the Stormers, Cheetahs and Japanese newcomers the Sunwolves – will not face any New Zealand teams in the pool stages.
They also have a rather favourable draw that sees them start of with a big north-south derby, against the Stormers at Newlands on February 27, and the host the Rebels in Pretoria a week later, before their first bye.
They host the Sharks on March 18, before their first road trip, to play the Sunwolves at the Singapore National Stadium a week later. They then play a succession of games in South Africa – Cheetahs (at Loftus Versfeld), Southern Kings (Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium), Reds (Loftus) – before their second bye.
The men from Pretoria then hit the road for a three-match trip to Australia – Western Force (Perth), Brumbies (Canberra) and Waratahs (Sydney), before returning home for matches against the Stormers (Loftus) and Lions (Loftus), before a trip to Argentina to face the Jaguares. They complete their pool fixtures against Japan (Loftus) and Cheetahs (Bloemfontein).
Marais said no matter what the schedule, their approach will remain the same.
"They can change the structure as much as they want, at the end of the day your approach is from game to game," he told rugby365 in an interview during their pre-season build-up.
"You have to play what and whom is in front of you.
"Every week will bring a different challenge for you – when you play the Brumbies they present certain challenges, the next week you play the Crusaders and they bring something unique."
The Bulls' new mentor said you have to adjust to the structure of the competition, but you also have to take it week by week.
"I feel at the start of the season the scores will be close, but as wear and tear sets in the scores will begin to blow out," he told rugby365.
"Depth is going to be incredibly important.
"It is a very protracted competition that only reaches its conclusion in August – then you still have the incoming [June] tours and national commitments for some players."
The Bulls have also confirmed their pre-season fixtures:
February 6: Bulls v Cheetahs, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
February 13: Bulls v Lions, Peter Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane
* Super Rugby expansion explained.
The 18 teams will be grouped geographically.
There are two regional groups, each consisting of two conferences: the Australasian Group, with five teams in the Australian Conference and five teams in the New Zealand Conference and the South African Group, with six South African teams, one Argentinean team and one Japanese team split into a four-team Africa One Conference a four-team Africa Two Conference.
In the group stages, there will be 17 rounds of matches, where each team will play 15 matches and have two rounds of byes for a total of 135 matches.
Teams will play six intra-conference matches; in the four-team African Conferences, each team will play the other three teams in their conference home and away, while in the five-team Australasian Conferences, each team will play two teams home and away and will play once against the other two teams (one at home and one away).
The other nine matches will be a single round of matches against each team in the other conference in their group, as well as against each team from one of the conferences in the other group.
For 2016, the teams in Africa One will play the teams in the Australian Conference, while the teams in Africa Two will play the teams in the New Zealand Conference.
The top team in each of the four conferences will automatically qualify to the quarterfinals. The next top three teams in the Australasian Group and the next top team in the South African group will also qualify to the quarterfinals as wildcards.
The conference winners will be seeded No.1 to No.4 for the quarterfinals, in order of log points gained during the group stages, while the wildcards will be seeded as No.5 to No.8 in order of log points gained during the group stages.
In the quarterfinals, the conference winners will host the first round of the play-offs, with the highest-seeded conference winner hosting the fourth-seeded wildcard entry, the second-seeded conference winner hosting the third-seeded wildcard entry, the third-seeded conference winner hosting the second-seeded wildcard entry and the fourth-seeded conference winner hosting the top-seed wildcard entry.
The quarterfinal winners will progress to the semifinals, where the highest seed to reach the semifinals will host the lowest seed and the second-seeded semifinalist will host the third-seeded team.
The winner of the semifinals will progress to the Final, at the venue of the highest-seeded team.
By Jan de Koning
@King365ed
@rugby365com
