Nerves out the way, Bulls aim to put things right against Ulster, says Kriel

The Bulls will be looking to produce an improved performance when they welcome Irish giants Ulster to Loftus Versfeld for their United Rugby Championship (URC) encounter on Saturday afternoon.

The Pretoria side got their season off to a winning, but unconvincing, start as they were pushed all the way before emerging with a tight 22-16 victory over Scottish outfit Edinburgh in their season opener last weekend.

Bulls utility back David Kriel admitted that there was plenty to work on, but that the team have had a good week in training and were excited to put in an improved showing against Ulster.

“Training has been good this week. Everyone knows there is still a lot of room to improve, especially after our performance against Edinburgh. It was a win, but it was an ugly win, so there is still plenty to improve on,” said Kriel.

“The squad have bought in to improving on those mistakes that we made over the past weekend, and we are looking forward to putting things right.

First game nerves

“I think it was a first game of season nerves and there were quite a few changes to the starting lineup, from who played last season, so I think it was just a matter of certain combinations being tested for the first time and stuff like that.

“For myself as well, it was the first time in about two years that I was playing fullback, it was quite an adjustment for me, but luckily that one is out of the way and we can just build on this going forward.”

Looking at the challenge of Ulster, who suffered a 35-22 defeat to the Lions last weekend, Kriel is expecting a stiff challenge and believes they will have to step up and match them to get a result.

“Ulster is an Irish team and over the past couple of URC seasons we have realised that the Irish teams are very system driven and accurate as well, while they have also become more physical,” explained Kriel.

“So we are going to have to step up and be ready physically. We are going to have to exploit them with our game plan to try and score as many points as possible.

“Ulster are a quality outfit, but they are coming to Loftus and that is a difficult place to win if you are the away team.”