JOHANNESBURG - The chief is back and with him comes a promise of better results but it is how the Bulls play in New Zealand that will make or break their season.
Bulls captain Adriaan Strauss made a winning return to the team from injury as his team registered their first win of the season against the Sunwolves last week at Loftus Versfeld but that will be insignificant if his team doesn’t kick on and manage to beat the Blues and Chiefs on their short but tough tour to New Zealand.
Strauss is likely to lead the team in their match against the Blues in Auckland on Saturday taking over the reins of the team from Handre Pollard, who is struggling to regain the form prior to his shoulder and ankle injuries that kept him out of the game for all of last year.
The former Springbok captain, Strauss, wants his team to focus only on the Blues and not think too far ahead, while at the same time look to nullify the errors of their ways that saw them lose to the Stormers and Cheetahs at the beginning of the season.
“It is true that this tour can make or break us but we will have to take it week-by-week,” Strauss said.
"You can’t at the beginning of the season look at the fixture list and choose which games you will do well and which you won’t do well. We will fight in every game and for every point. We let ourselves down in the first three matches of the season and we have a lot of work to do and the time is now, we have to quickly rectify things.
"I believe we did a lot of hard work in the pre-season and it is the small things that we must work on to get the results."
But there was enough glimpses of play in the game against the Sunwolves that has made Strauss confident that his team can come good and do so quickly. However, it will require patience and religiously sticking to and executing their gameplan, especially against the high intensity with which the New Zealand sides play.
“It is a massive opportunity and we showed in the game against the Sunwolves, especially in the first half, that we can create a lot of pressure. We played a lot of rugby in their half but we just couldn’t finish. We had a couple of line-out mauls that we needed to finish and when we got the turnover ball and got the line-breaks, we knocked on a few balls where we could have held on to that and even build more pressure. So, the plan is there and it is working when we are executing it well, we just need to be more clinical and we need to build phases,” said Strauss.
On paper, the Bulls have one of the best teams - not only in South Africa but in the entire competition - and they have amassed a healthy balance of experience and talented youngsters, who will become household names in the future.
Strauss sees the same potential in his team to become real contenders for top honours but concedes that they have not played anywhere near their potential and the time has now come for them to be a formidable outfit on the field as well.
“They are a rugby country and all of their unions play great rugby, so it is a challenge for us. We are also confident in what we can do. We haven’t achieved our potential and we haven’t even touched on the way we want to play for the season. But we are growing as a team and I believe we will get there. We’ve got a lot of hard work to put in and we are excited about being on tour but we also know it is going to be tough.”