Bulls ready for their Kiwi challenge

The bookies list the Bulls at anywhere between 22-to-one and 32-to-one outsiders to win outright.

However, Bulls coach Nollis Marais is adamant that he was a "good squad with depth" at his disposal and will be in the play-off mix.

He admits that playing New Zealand teams this year will present them with a tough hurdle in their quest to improve on last year's ninth-place finish - while the draw is not doing them any favours either.

"The goal for every team in Super Rugby is to win the competition," Marais told rugby365.

"If we don't believe that we can win, what is the purpose of playing?

"We truly believe we can win.

"However, what makes things tough for us this year is that in the first seven rounds, just one game is at home [against the Sunwolves on March 17]."

The Bulls play the Stormers (Cape Town), Cheetahs (Bloemfontein), Sunwolves (Pretoria), Blues (Auckland), Chiefs (Hamilton) and Sunwolves (Tokyo) in the first sevens weeks - with a bye in Round Three.

"We have a tough start and travel a lot early on," the Bulls coach told rugby365, adding: "What will help is that most of the young guys have now had a taste of touring.

"Last year when we travelled [to Australia], of the 27 players in the squad, 14 were playing in their first Super Rugby season.

"It is always tough to tour the first time.

"This year most of the guys will have experienced touring.

"The other big challenge will be to play the New Zealand teams."

The Bulls have three pre-season outings.

They will face  the Lions (in Harare on January 28), the Chiefs (Brisbane, February 8) and then play the Brisbane Global 10s (at the Suncorp Stadium on February 11 and 12.

By Jan de Koning

@rugby365com