Bulls coach's job on the line?

However, he felt he still had the support of the board and he will not throw the towel in just yet.

The Bulls are 14th in the 18-team competition - with just one win from six starts.

That victory was against the Sunwolves at Loftus Versfeld in Week Four.

The same Sunwolves piled the misery on the Bulls by claiming their first-ever South African scalp when they beat the Bulls 21-20 inTokyo this past weekend.

The men from Pretoria also suffered losses to the Stormers (24-37 in Cape Town), Cheetahs (28-34 in Bloemfontein), the Blues (14-38 in Auckland) and the Chiefs (12-28 in Hamilton).

The run of defeats has resulted in some questions being raised about Marais' future as Bulls coach.

Marais brushed off the suggestion that his job is on the line and said they will focus on their next match - against the Jaguares in Pretoria this coming Saturday.

"Every coach's job is on the line if you are one out of six," Marais said of his team's poor form.

"You will always be under pressure.

"It is Super Rugby and people expect a lot from the coaches.

"I know that our board has a lot of faith in me, but the results need to prove it and we need to fix it before next weekend."

Marais said he felt a bit "unsatisfied" about the performances of certain players, but would not point out any individuals.

"You have to look at the whole team," he said, adding: "At the end of the day, the whole team was not good enough [against the Sunwolves].

"The team knows they never produced the results and we have another nine games, of which seven are at home.

"They know exactly what to do and we must fix it this week."

@rugby365