BULLS TO BE TESTED IN TOUGH TOUR

THE next two weeks will have some sort of a bearing on how far the Bulls will go in this year’s Super Rugby competition as they have daunting back-to-back clashes against New Zealand sides Blues and Chiefs.

The Bulls‚ who left the country this week, take on the Blues at the QBE Stadium in Auckland on Saturday morning and the Chiefs at the FMG Stadium in Waikato the following weekend.

Then there is the return clash against the Sunwolves at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium in Japan, where they will be looking to complete the double over the Africa Conference One strugglers who have lost their opening four matches so far.

Bulls captain Adriaan Strauss‚ who has taken over from flyhalf Handre Pollard following his return from injury‚ said the tour would test their relatively young and inexperienced side.

“It’s a massive opportunity for the guys‚” he said.

“We are excited about the tour and we are fully aware that it is going to be tough.

“[New Zealand is] a rugby country‚ they play good rugby and that is a challenge for us.

“But we are confident of what we can achieve over there.”

Strauss‚ who missed the Bulls’ opening two losses, to the Stormers in Cape Town and the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein‚ returned to action against the Sunwolves last Friday to help his side to their first win of the season.

“It is great to be back with the guys on the field and it really felt good to be out there and playing rugby again‚” he said.

“We showed against the Sunwolves that we can play good rugby because we played a lot in their half.

“But we had a couple of lineouts and mauls which we could not finish.

“The plan is there of how we want to play rugby – we just need to be more clinical.”

Strauss said that although they had shown good signs during their win over the Sunwolves‚ they were yet to play to their full potential.

“We are growing as a team”, he said.

“I believe that we will get there and we have a lot of hard work to do.

“We were a lot better this week in terms of intensity‚ and we played in the right areas.

“It is just that we made a lot of errors and we just need to solve a few details going forward.

“We haven’t hit our markers in so many aspects of the game, but we can improve a lot and we have set out goals in specific areas,” he said.

Meanwhile‚ the Blue Bulls Company (Pty) Ltd confirmed yesterday that an agreement with winger Luther Obi has been reached to end his contract.

Obi‚ who is a former Junior Springbok‚ had been on the union’s books since late 2015 and played in two Currie Cup qualifier matches last year, but missed a large chunk of the season due to injury.