The disappointment of not going further in Europe has been put aside, but for the sake of South African pride, local franchises need to go as far as they can - if not win the Vodacom United Rugby Championship this season.
That’s the view of Springbok flyhalf Handre Pollard, who spoke ahead of the Bulls game against Dragons on Friday night - the first of four games for his side as they look to cement their place in the top eight and ensure as positive a playoff role as they can.
Pollard said while it was disappointing that no South African side was in the playoffs, the focus now needed to be on the URC and doing the best they could in this competition.
“It is disappointing. We all face our different challenges across a long season, and we are playing in two different competitions. It is tough for the SA teams, with quite a lot of travel. It is hard to go away from home up there,” Pollard said.
“Maybe we should have done better in the pool stages to give ourselves home playoff games, then we could have given ourselves a good shot.
"Having home-ground advantage in knock-out games is huge. But that was not the fate this season for any of the SA teams, but we can’t dwell on that now. We have to get straight back into the URC. It is the business end, and we have a lot of stuff to focus on now.”
PRAISE FOR PAPIER
With that in mind, the Bulls pivot is looking to a number of his teammates to help him lead the charge, and had some high words of praise for his scrumhalf Embrose Papier, who has had five man of the match awards this season and is arguably the form scrumhalf in the competition.
Papier’s omission from the recent Springbok alignment camps has raised a few eyebrows, and the Bok halfback last played for the national side in 2018 but his form of late has made many sit up and notice.
“When it comes to Emi, I can’t give him any advice at the moment. He must just carry on playing the way he is playing,” Pollard smiled.
“I think he is playing unbelievable rugby and he has an incredibly important role in our team at the moment. He must just carry on doing what he is doing.
“The Boks are the Boks. It is in none of our hands. They will choose who they want and who they think is the right person. Emi must just carry on doing his thing and work hard, like all of us. Those things are out of your control.”
Still, Pollard admitted he was very impressed with Papier’s role in the side at the moment.
“He’s incredibly important for us,” he explained.
“He’s taken his game to another level. He’s always had that X-factor, but his fundamentals are unbelievably good now. He also creates something out of nothing.
“I really enjoy playing with him. He takes a lot of pressure off me and creates a lot of opportunities for us.”
The Bulls will be hoping those opportunities come again on Friday night when they face the first of two games in Wales and if they do, they will take another step closer to the playoffs.