Bulls staying grounded
The Pretoria-based side beat the Reds 41-22 at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday to make it four wins on the trot. They are also just one point behind the Stormers on the Africa One Conference.
However, captain Adriaan Strauss knows they still have plenty of work to do if they are to reach the play-offs this year.
"We know we are not where we want to be yet as a team, but a win is a win in Super Rugby," said Strauss after Saturday's win.
"We need to play for 80 minutes and I think we are getting closer to that every week. Against the Force it will be a different challenge and every single game we start from scratch. We are very happy with the win, but we are not getting ahead of ourselves."
The Bulls will have a bye in Round Nine before travelling to Australia to face the Force, Brumbies and Waratahs. They then return to South Africa to play the Stormers and the Lions.
Those five matches will be on consecutive weekends, which means Marais would need to rotate his players in the coming weeks.
"It is going to be a challenge," said Marais.
"I would have liked the bye after the tour. I think we get back on a Sunday night and then the next weekend we play the Stormers here [Loftus Versfeld].
"We know it's going to be a challenge and at certain stage on tour we will have to see who is going to play what games so that we get guys rested enough for the home games."
The Bulls are also currently in the process of evolving their attacking game and Marais feels that are improving every week.
"We have been playing the same way for seven years and we said that we are going to try something different.
"There is a lot of work we still have to do. The guys are buying into it and we must stick to it if we want to be competitive down the line," he added.
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