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The Bulls are alive and well across two competitions, much to the delight of Director of Rugby Jake White.
The Pretoria franchise shifted focus to knockout rugby for the Challenge Cup this weekend, where they faced Bayonne. The Bulls scored four tries in their 32-22 win over the French outfit to advance to the last eight of the competition. Talisman Marcell Coetzee was awarded the Man of the Match for another combative effort.
"The one thing I enjoyed the most is just how we handled the crowd," said White after the match.
"It's a big learning curve for South African sides when they play in France, It's unique, and especially this Basque region. It's generally a very tough place to come and play good rugby. I really enjoyed the way we embraced the atmosphere and the way that we started.
"We scored some wonderful tries, and that is also very good for us because it'll give us confidence. To get a result like that with the way we played is fantastic.
"I can't underplay the fact that when you've come to this region of France, it's rugby country, and you can feel it. It's an honour, and it's important for our players too, because for a lot of them, this is the first time they've been to this part of the world."
It's out of the frying pan and into the fire for the Bulls, as they face Edinburgh in Scotland for a Challenge Cup semifinal berth on Saturday. Win or lose, they then move back into United Rugby Championship mode with tough assignments in Muster and Glasgow in the following weeks.
"We only brought 30 players this week, and the reason was because we didn't know how long we'd be here," added White.
"I'm sure that we will bring in some extra players. It doesn't look like we got any injuries and we can now build on that momentum into the next couple of rounds.
"I'm looking forward to the next couple of days because we could quite easily have been out of the competition and now we are still alive.
"It's wonderful to have a club and a team that's still alive in a competition. It's three games left and hopefully we will play our best rugby in those three games."
