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The Bulls achieved what many would call a shock result in Bayonne last weekend as they secured a place in the quarter finals of the Challenge Cup. This tournament was won by a South African team last season, and Jake White’s men put a disappointing Champions Cup campaign behind them to give themselves a shot at repeating history.
White made a point of telling the media he put out a weakened team on Saturday, but that was disingenuous. He loaded the bench with first teamers like Wessels, Hanekom, Papier, Goosen and Nortje whilst his starters included Akker van der Merwe, Marco van Staden and Wilcow Louw.
If what Bulls fielded was a B-team, what Bayonne put out was a Z-team as they looked to actively throw this fixture. They have never prioritised the Challenge cup and have much bigger fish to fry as they find themselves 4th in the Top14 meaning a home quarter final is on the cards. Nonetheless, this was their first home defeat of the season, making it at least somewhat noteworthy.
The Bulls’s strengths as a rugby team are clear: their superpower is the scrum, where they can legitimately claim to be the strongest in club rugby, and they have plenty of individual razzle-dazzle in the backline. Their weaknesses are their volume of injuries – which is substantial – and at fly-half, where they have felt the need to splash the cash to bring home Handre Pollard for next season. Their lineout has also misfired, but the return of Nortje should help them in that area.
These knockout rounds have come at a convenient time for the Bulls as they were due to be up north for the URC anyway. This means there will be none of the weekly cross-hemisphere flights that have undermined many a South African team of late. Should they get to a semi-final, they will have spent 5 consecutive weeks in Europe.
To make that a reality they will need to beat Edinburgh at the Hive. Any URC fan will tell you the Bulls are a better team than Edinburgh – Edinburgh fans included. Furthermore, the men from Pretoria have shown themselves to be confident travellers this season, having won 5 from 7 on the road in the URC, with the only blemish on their northern hemisphere record being a narrow loss to the Scarlets in Llanelli.
If they do win at the weekend, they will set up a semi final meeting with the winner of Bath vs Gloucester. Bath look set to lift the Premiership title this season, which would be their first silverware since the 1990s. Of all the English teams, their pack is the one that has the best chance of holding the Bulls at bay whilst their backline has the tools to inflict serious damage. They would be the favourites for that game.
Gloucester have more Challenge Cup heritage than anyone, having made six finals. However, they may also be distracted by an unusually strong Premiership campaign. Their attack is effective but their defence is weak, with an average scoreline of 31-28 in the league this season. They also fade in the 2nd half, scoring just 36.9% of their tries after the break (the least of any club side) whereas the Bulls are approaching 50/50 in that regard.
Of the other teams left in the Challenge Cup, Bulls have already defeated Ospreys and Connacht away from home this season whilst Racing 92 have endured an awful Top14 campaign. The biggest threat to them will be Lyon, but there is one other piece of context: the Bulls have a habit of losing finals and semi finals, a trend that goes back to the rainbow cup in 2021. They haven’t even won the South African shield in the URC, despite being, on balance, the most consistently strong team. Perhaps the biggest hurdle they need to overcome is not physical, but mental: are they really winners?
