Bye gives injured Bulls a break

The break could not have come at a better time for the men from Pretoria, with a number of players struggling to overcome injury niggles in the wake of their 45-25 win over the Rebels at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend.

Bulls team doctor Herman Rossouw confirmed that a couple of players suffered knocks at against the Rebels and will not train this week.

Burger Odendaal is sitting out training with a quad strain suffered against Rebels, but he is expected to be back next week - ahead of the Round Four encounter with the Sharks in Pretoria on March 18.

Roelof Smith also underwent a scan for an undisclosed injury, with Rossouw saying it was a "positive result" and he too should be back next week.

There is further good news in that Springbok Jesse Kriel, who missed the game against the Rebels with head knock, will return to training on Tuesday.

Springbok flyhalf Handré Pollard (out till the end of the year with a knee injury) tops the long-term injury list.

However, Dean Greyling, Pieter Labuschagne and Deon Stegmann are all three making steady progress from their injuries and should be back at the end of the month.

A Bjorn Basson hat-trick helped the Bulls to a comfortable win over the Rebels - their first win of the season, after they went down 9-33 to the Stormers in Cape Town the previous weekend.

The bye will now allow those players with injury niggles an additional week of recovery.