Cape Town – The pressure of staying in the playoff hunt is increasing every weekend in the United Rugby Championship, but that is not fazing the high-riding Bulls, according to captain Marcell Coetzee.
The men from Pretoria face yet another must-win encounter on Friday night when they face Glasgow at Loftus Versfeld (7pm kickoff).
Jake White’s team are eighth on the log with 48 points, one behind Edinburgh and two adrift of the Warriors, so they could catapult themselves into the all-important top seven by beating the Glaswegians.
Seventh and above will guarantee a URC playoff spot and coveted Champions Cup qualification for next season, as the top side in the Welsh Shield – with the Scarlets leading at the moment – are likely to finish ninth, but still advance to the Champions Cup as regional shield winners.
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The Bulls will hope to make a better start against the Scottish side on Friday, after falling behind in the first half against Benetton last weekend and Ulster previously. They won both matches with four-try bonus points and produced some thrilling touchdowns, but know that they should avoid having to come from behind to secure victories.
“It has been like that for the last few games, where it was must-win. The guys are now settled with that and know the outcomes, and it shows how important those first few games were,” Coetzee said from Loftus Versfeld on Tuesday.
“We’re now in a position where we have to fight, but the guys have embraced it, and this weekend won’t be any different. It’s a quality Glasgow team, and I don’t think we must look too much at the score this past weekend.
“The Stormers played very well (in beating Glasgow 32-7 last week), but there are still areas where Glasgow can be dangerous for us. We must just be ready for it.
“It’s difficult to answer that (about the cause of the slow starts), but one thing that springs to mind is perhaps the rest we had the previous weekend – we were a bit rusty and a bit slow to get to the ball.
“But I think the major difference between this team and a year ago is how quickly we can adapt. By about the 30th minute, we started to get the control back in the game, and we started to get the rewards from our set-pieces – and we could build from there.
“I am very proud of the guys that they could adapt so quickly, and it was the same in the Ulster game as well. It just shows the growth of the team coming through.
“If you take where we started, we were at one stage bottom of the log, and we managed to fight our way back into a playoff spot – which shows you the character and the culture that we have in the team.
“There are a few important games that we had to win along the way, and we managed to do that. There are still two games before the playoffs, and anything can happen. We can control what we can, and then we will see what the fate decides for us.”