Hamilton holds no fears for Bulls

The Bulls may thrive in playing at a packed Loftus Versfeld in front of 50,000 spectators, but they are equally comfortable in the much smaller New Zealand stadia.

Bulls captain Pierre Spies, speaking to this website ahead of his team's crucial Super Rugby encounter with the Chiefs in Hamilton on Friday, said they have no problems with playing at smaller venues.

The Waikato Stadium, venue for Friday's crunch encounter, only has half the capacity of Loftus – 25,800 in Hamilton, compared to the 51,900 of the Pretoria stadium.

In fact the only South African franchise stadium that is under 50,000 capacity is the Free State stadium in Bloemfontein – 40,900.

That is well above the New Zealand average – with the 50,000 capacity Eden Park the biggest, followed by Wellington (36,000), Dunedin (30,000), Hamilton (25,800) and Christchurch (18,000).

Many teams struggle in smaller venues, but Spies said the Bulls are not unnerved by these changes.

"That is part of the game," Spies told this website, when asked about his team's tour – which has also seen them play the Rebels in a 31,000 seater venue in Melbourne and the Highlanders in Dunedin's indoor venue last week.

"I doubt it [smaller stadiums] makes any difference," he said, adding: "Even the stadium in Dunedin is much smaller than what we have at home, but it still had a great atmosphere. At the Rebels [in Melbourne] there was a great atmosphere, despite limited spectators.

"It is great to visit different stadiums, but at the end of the day it is just another field."

There is another factor that counts in favour of the Bulls on Friday – recent history.

The Bulls have won their last four matches against the Chiefs, including a 61-17 drubbing in the 2009 Final, while the men from Pretoria have not lost in Hamilton since 2004. The Chiefs' last win against the Bulls – their only win in their last nine meetings – were in Rotorua in 2008.

However, Spies is looking past all this at the bigger picture.

"The goal is to end the tour on a high and take home as much momentum as possible," he said of a tour that has already yielded two wins (over the Rebels and Waratahs) and a narrow loss to the Highlanders – for 10 handy points on the standings.

He said the results on the field makes it a good or bad tour.

"Winning always makes any tour enjoyable," he said.

They are also determined to bounce back from last week's loss, an 11-16 loss in Dunedin.

"We have planned well this week," Spies said of the build-up to the encounter with New Zealand's conference leaders.

"Obviously we are not happy with last week's result, but our preparation has been great this week."

He described the loss to the Highlanders as "a big learning curve".

"We made errors at crucial stages in the game and failed to get points. We were still in with a chance [of winning] late in the game."

However, the Chiefs will pose a far more formidable threat this week.

"They are not leading the New Zealand conference for nothing," the Bulls captain said, adding: "They are a very well-balanced team and much better than the last few years.

"We are also playing in their backyard, but it is a good challenge for us as a group … I can't think of a better way to end the tour."

Spies said he has not changed his approach to the game at all since being handed the captaincy at the beginning of the year.

"There are additional responsibilities [that goes with the captaincy], but I am learning every day and feeling more comfortable [in that position].

"It is a great group of players to be part of and I enjoy playing with them.

"It is a great time to be a member of the Bulls team."

By Jan de Koning