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The Bulls will be aiming to reignite their United Rugby Championship (URC) campaign, after breaking a dreadful seven-match losing streak with a vital Champions Cup win over Section Paloise (Pau) last weekend that progressed them to the next round.
The tight 26-24 away win over an in-form Pau team, who are sitting second on the French Top 14 log, was exactly what the Bulls needed to get them out of a dreadful slump that threatened to derail their season.
They are also incredibly lucky that their one win picked up in the Champions Cup pool phase, against three defeats, was enough to get them through to the competition’s last 16.
But the Bulls now face a tricky challenge to build on that victory when they take on Edinburgh in Scotland in their URC clash on Friday night.
Before this past weekend, the Bulls had last won a match back in October, when they edged Connacht 28-27 in a thrilling URC encounter in Ireland.
After that they lost seven straight matches – four in the URC and three in the Champions Cup – before breaking that streak in another incredibly tight contest, this time in France.
Home defeats
What was most disappointing for the Bulls during their losing run was that three of those defeats were suffered at home, and two of them, against the Lions in the URC and against Bristol Bears in the Champions Cup, they should have won.
But after playing most of their games away from home so far in the URC (five of their eight matches) they have a nice run of home fixtures to look forward to soon after the Edinburgh clash.
So it will give them a big boost if they can clinch an important win over the Scottish side, to take into a run of matches on the Highveld, most of which they will aim to win.
Edinburgh have had a similar season to the Bulls, and sit just one point and one place ahead of them on the URC log in 10th place, having also picked up three wins against five losses, so they will also be desperate for a win to close the gap on the top eight.
It will thus be a contest between two desperate teams who have struggled for form, going all out to try and get their seasons back on track, and whoever comes out on top may gain the momentum needed to turn things around.
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