The Vodacom Bulls left South Africa for their next overseas sojourn in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship on Tuesday night knowing that their destiny is in their own hands.
In what Director of Rugby Jake White termed their “month of rewards”, the Bulls have made it clear that the opportunities that are on offer over the next month far outweigh the risks and if they get it right they can head into the playoffs in a very strong position.
But much of that will be determined on how they do on a tough tour that will challenge them in so many ways. Their first challenge is Welsh side Dragons, who will lie in wait for them at Rodney Parade on Saturday, before moving onto a log-leading clash with Irish juggernaut Leinster in Dublin a week later.
Week three sees a return to Loftus Versfeld and an Investec Champions’ Cup Round of 16 date with French side Lyon and depending on that result, and others, a quarterfinal against either Northampton away or Munster at Loftus a week later.
So White heads into this tour with confidence knowing his side - sitting second on the log at the moment - are confident and have everything to play for.
That’s why he made a point of it trying to explain just how rewarding the next month can be if they get it right. Glass half full stuff will fuel the Bulls as they pack in a massive amount of rugby on two continents in the next few weeks.
“It’s a nice place to be - where we are at the moment on the log - perhaps not on top of the South African conference but at the top of the SA teams on the log. I said to the players it is quite a nice place to be now,” White explained.
“If we play our best rugby in the next month and we beat Dragons, Leinster away, Lyon here and a quarterfinal, you are almost guaranteed of making two semifinals in two competitions. That is a helluva place to be as a club.
“It’s not given, I’m not jumping the gun, but I’m saying we have our own destiny in our own hands. I know we are good enough. I know if we play well enough we are good enough, we have beaten those teams before.
“So that is the nice thing, we have our own destiny in our hands and a run of games, but it is a nice exciting run of games. There is a lot to play for.
“I often talk about the analogy of playing in the masters and you play Friday to make the cut, you feel pressure. But when you’re walking down the 18th to win the masters there is a lot of pressure, but it is nice pressure to have as well.
“We are there now, we have created a nice buffer to be able to play for big things. And I would like us to play in the next month like a team that is happy to play in that situation.”
White knows that after the win over the Stormers, and the break his team have had, they need to come out firing on Saturday, but believes the break - this time around - has been beneficial to the side.
“It was a bit refreshing, we needed a bit of refreshing. We looked at last year this time how difficult it was for us when I got sick and we were in a bit of a hole. But the learnings we got out of last year is we needed a break, and the breaks come. We’ve done really well coming into the break - imagine if we had lost three, four games coming into the break. So it is really a very different situation. It has given us time to freshen up and time to tweak a few things that we need to do in the next block,” he said.
“The next month is one month of intense rugby but with a lot of rewards if you do well in this month.”