Trial by fire just what Bulls need

The revolution at the Bulls has, frankly, stalled a bit following consecutive defeats over the past two weeks. With two daunting assignments against the Chiefs this morning and Crusaders next week left on their Australasian tour, it’s perfectly imaginable that John Mitchell’s men’s confidence could become fragile.

Yet Bulls captain and influential midfielder, Burger Odendaal, insists he and his troops are in the right frame of mind.

“I always think you’re going to encounter a couple of speedbumps along the way,” he said.

“Against the Lions, our maul defence wasn’t good and against the Reds we didn’t get into a structure on attack. Every week there are going to be things to work on. It’s better to have these problems crop up sooner rather than later. There’s no motivation missing, the guys are up for it every week.”

In fact, the Bulls are quite keen to test themselves in Hamilton given that they seem to be harbouring play-off ambitions if things go well during the campaign.

“We talked about this during the week,” said Odendaal.

“These are actually the teams you can play against during the business end of the season. If you can play them early and experience to an extent what you’ll be up against later in the campaign, it’s really beneficial.

“We haven’t toured well in a long time. It’s time to have a successful one.”

The Bulls will hope to tap into Mitchell’s local knowledge as he played for Waikato but he’s keen to downplay that factor.

“The older you get, the more you tend to not worry about those things anymore,” said the former All Black mentor.

“It’s nice to see family and friends and come back to a place that’s familiar. But my focus is about making sure our preparation is first and foremost right. I want the players also to realise that when you come to New Zealand, it’s not so much about the physical aspect of the game.

“It’s more about mental preparation. We’ll have to go 100 minutes and be accurate.”