Expansive Bulls need some 'favours'

Nollis Marais said they have to "make sure" they win the next three games - starting with their Round 15 encounter with the Jaguares in Buenos Aires on Saturday - and hope "somebody else slips up".

The Bulls can realise their dream of a play-off spot, as their run-in to the quarterfinals is not the worst - the this Saturday, followed by encounters with the Sunwolves in Pretoria a week later and finishing their league fixtures off when they travel to Bloemfontein to face the Cheetahs.

But Marais is adamant they are going to persist with a more attacking brand of rugby.

"It is going to be difficult, especially if you look at the weather - it is raining and it is cold," Marais told a media briefing this week - when asked about coming back form the June break and then heading to South America.

"They have played in three big [Test] matches as Argentina - against Italy and France], but we always knew it was going to be a challenge for us."

The Bulls are currently fourth in the combined Africa conference - behind the Lions, Stormers and Sharks - with the Africa One and Africa Two conference winners, along with the best-placed second finisher advancing to the quarterfinals.

Marais said the Bulls are being hurt by their inability to collect bonus pints - with just two try-scoring bonus points from 12 matches and no points for losing by seven points or less.

In contrast the table-topping Lions and second-placed Stormers both have six bonus points, while the Sharks sit on five.

"We are on the same number of wins," Marais said of the Stormers and Sharks, adding: "All we can do now is make sure we win the next three games and hopefully somebody else slips up and give us a chance to get into the quarterfinals."

Having shipped 50 points in the loss to the Lions, in their last match, Marais said they realised the way they play and the intensity with which they play have to be adjusted drastically.

"We have worked hard on that and in the last two weeks we spoke to the players about that - they know the road ahead.

"We know what our shortcomings are and going forward what we need to work on to improve.

"Unfortunately we are in a position where we have a number of injuries and taking an inexperienced team [on tour] - they have to come through at some stage."

He said the Bulls know where they are heading to and they know they have to adjust their intensity and how they approach the game.

"We have made the decision about where we are heading and there is no value in stagnating with the kind of game we played previously," the Bulls' mentor said.

"We have decided to move on and have already made those adjustments - the coaches are buying into that.

"We realise it would be tough [making the change in game plan]. However, we can't crawl into a corner and cry and creep into our shells.

"If you want to win these days you need to play a more attacking brand of rugby.

"The worst thing we can now do is look at the game against the Lions and say we were so bad, but the Lions on that day would have beaten any team.

"However, there are certain things we need to adapt to and improve on. We can't just maul and think you can win a match with mauls all the time.

"If they stop your maul you have nothing that works for you.

"We decided we want to play a certain way and the way we played against the Lions is not the way we want to play - we were too conservative.

"It doesn't matter if we win or loose, we want to play with high intensity."

By Jan de Koning

@rugby365com