Champions Cup: Bulls have learned from last season, now they want to win it

The Bulls “slipped up” in their 59-22 drubbing by Northampton Saints in last year’s Champions Cup quarter-final but they are determined to right that wrong and go all the way this time around.

Bulls loose forward Marco van Staden told the media ahead of their Champions Cup first-round match against Saracens at StoneX Stadium on Saturday that they simply had a bad game against their English opponents in the knock-out round last season, but that they have grown since then.

Bulls out to win Champions Cup

“I wouldn’t say anything went wrong last season. We just slipped up in a crucial game, and that was in the quarter-finals,” said Van Staden.

“This year we are just going to try and be more clinical when it comes to playoff games.”

Van Staden said the Bulls’ mindset is still the same though and they will go “all out to win the competition”.

“We don’t take any competition lightly. Any competition a Bulls team participates in, we participate in it to win it.”

Hence, the team are currently focusing on winning both the Champions Cup and the United Rugby Championship (URC).

The Bulls are third in URC with five wins from six games, but they have work to do to catch up to Leinster and Glasgow Warriors, who are 10 and three points ahead of the Bulls, respectively, though they both have played one more game than the Bulls.

Van Staden said winning the Champions Cup may prove even more challenging than the URC because the competition features teams from England and France while the URC doesn’t.

Level of work increases

“Teams are loaded with international players so the level of competition is definitely up,” he said. “It is almost Test level so you need to bring more intensity.”

Van Staden said much like international sides do, clubs have to do more preparation and analysis ahead of big matches like this weekend’s clash against a European powerhouse.

This is all the more reason the Bulls have to learn from mistakes made in previous seasons.

Van Staden, who has 25 caps for the Springboks, said he and fellow Bok Cameron Hanekom had learned to take preparation far more seriously going back to club rugby after playing internationally.

Looking ahead, the Bulls will get a chance for revenge against Northampton Saints before the knockouts as they’re slated to meet in a pool 3 game at Loftus Versfeld next week Saturday.