With three away wins in Europe behind them, the Vodacom Bulls will be looking to now restore a stat that really matters to them - making their home ground, Loftus Versfeld, a fortress again.
The Bulls have a run of home games - starting with their derby against the Hollywoodbets Sharks this weekend in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship - ahead of them that could propel them into the playoffs, or ruin their season altogether.
The Bulls home record has always been good, with a mixture of the dry air and altitude aiding their game plan. At the moment since the inception of URC rugby they have won 34 of their 42 home games, including a 14-match unbeaten run in 2024/25.
But in recent times their invincibility tag and the fortress tag of the ground has waned a bit. They have had poor losses in the Investec Champions Cup to teams like Northampton, Bordeaux and Bristol and have lost derbies to the Sharks and Stormers last season, as well as a shock derby loss to the Lions earlier this season.
MAKE LOFTUS A FORTRESS AGAIN
Either way, captain Marcell Coetzee wants to make Loftus a fortress again, something that will be vital to their run into the playoffs.
“It is important. It’s our home ground and our home crowd and it’s Pretoria. The guys need to feed off the crowd’s energy. We went hard in those games overseas and we got the result. But it is important to give a good performance in front of your home crowd.
"It is important for us and it keeps everyone focused on delivering their best performance this coming weekend,” Coetzee said.
Part of the issue earlier on in the season was that they were playing a more expansive game, and there were issues that led to a seven game losing streak. Since returning to a more pragmatic game, focusing on their strengths, the Bulls have pulled off three big wins, including a dominant performance against the Lions in Johannesburg to avenge the earlier season defeat.
But that means nothing if you can’t win your home games and your home ground isn’t a bulwark in your campaign.
BIG CHALLENGE
“That’s our big challenge. We want to get the spectators excited again by imposing our DNA. If you look at the past, last season, the Sharks and the Stormers also beat us here, so that's definitely a factor we identified and see how we can be better towards building and handling the pressure and just exerting our dominance,” Coetzee explained.
“It's something we've been working on and I think the big thing is the excitement in the group, the excitement to play this weekend. Derby games against the Sharks don't get any bigger, so I think that will ultimately drive the motivation for this weekend.”
Once a teammate of Sharks coach JP Pietersen, Coetzee sees the difference the new coach has brought to the coastal side since he was appointed in the place of John Plumtree.
“I’ve been privileged to play with JP at the Sharks when I was younger. What he is getting right is that he wants a great culture and he listens to players. You can see it in how they play. They play for 80 minutes and they had some great results (against the Stormers).
"You can definitely see the difference in their game dynamic. They have always been good in the aerial contest where they have always been good in the air but it seems they are working harder for each other at the moment.”
BOLAND GAME WAS BENEFICIAL
The Bulls surprised by playing a number of front line players against Boland last weekend in a warm-up match to shake off the rust after three weeks' rest. Thankfully there were no injuries but they were made to sweat to win the match, something that Coetzee said was very “beneficial” to the side.
Boland 🤝 #TheUnbreakableLine
— Official Blue Bulls (@BlueBullsRugby) February 20, 2026
📸: Boland Rugby Media pic.twitter.com/hPnuzdeVYn
“I think it was very beneficial, I think with the Sharks game against the Lions, they'll be fairly used to altitude now and they understand now where to match that, so that's where we have to be on our toes.
"I think the biggest positive outcome out of that game was no serious injuries, we managed to get through, everyone got a couple of good minutes against Boland and like I mentioned, they really brought it to us and it was a wake-up call.”
The Bulls will name their side for the clash on Friday.