Bulls hope to make amends for last year’s disaster against Ulster

The Bulls will not take Ulster lightly, despite the visitors’ poor form, as they look to rectify last season’s disastrous performance, which was publicly lambasted by their president, Willem Strauss.

The teams meet in the United Rugby Championship at Loftus on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 1.45pm), 12 months since Johan Ackermann’s first defeat as head coach of the union.

Their 28-7 loss against Ulster in Belfast was described by Strauss as “arguably our worst performance since joining the URC”.

Shortly afterwards, the Bulls went on to a seven-match losing streak.

Bulls connected, in form this time

While they still went on to qualify for the play-offs and even make their fourth URC final in five seasons, the Bulls won’t forget last season’s disaster, where Strauss accused them of looking disinterested.

In five meetings, Ulster have the edge with three wins. The home side has won every meeting so far.

Form also points to a Bulls win at Loftus.

The Pretoria union returns to the URC after an eight-try thrashing of Stade Français at the same venue last weekend (score 56-20).

They sit third on the URC table after a bonus-point win over Zebre, narrow defeat to Munster, and bonus-point thrashing of the Lions.

The team is connected and new signings are shining, putting them on course for another top-four finish.

‘You never know what will happen’

Ulster, meanwhile, travel without several injured players and without a win in the URC. They are 11th on the table after a narrow defeat to Edinburgh at home, draw to Munster at home and draw to Glasgow Warriors away.

They do, however, come from an encouraging 40-21 away win over Zebre in the Challenge Cup.

“Ulster is always a class act. They’ve got a good team and a good system,” said Bulls eighthman Cameron Hanekom.

“They are an Irish side, detailed. They find small ways to trick a person to get over the advantage line. So I feel that if we can focus on our systems and what our coaches and everybody brings together, we’ll be good to go.

“They are a very good team. Maybe they had a slow start, but you never know what will happen.”

Despite their good form and home record against Ulster, Hanekom said the Bulls could not be complacent. The win would not just happen on its own.

“I feel that we’re in a good spot at the moment, but we can definitely still evolve our game and get better as a team together.”