The Bulls’ favours have now dried up

“I’m a former Lions coach myself. I think we’ve done them a bit of a favour, especially after the Jaguares hit the posts in the dying seconds.”

At face value, it would seem John Mitchell gave his Bulls charges a nudge and asked them to carry out that order against the Jaguares at Loftus at the weekend.

The Bulls rallied from 0-19 down to record a thrilling if somewhat lucky 43-34 win over the Argentinians, which had the bonus of keeping the Lions at the top of the South African Super Rugby conference.

But that’s where the friendliness will stop.

If Swys de Bruin’s men are going to finish at the summit, they’ll have to pull out all the stops against their neighbours at Ellis Park on Saturday.

“They’re the best team in the conference no doubt but this Lions side feeds on certain things and it’s those certain things that we’ve taken a loot at,” said Mitchell.

“We’ve got the opportunity to go to Ellis Park and finish with the same intent that we started the season with.”

In fact, it promises to be an interesting week’s build-up as the New Zealander didn’t shy away from pointing out how the Lions are going to go about things in the Jukskei Derby.

Is Mitchell just making conversation about an opponent or is it a subtle mind-game?

“Yeah, next week the maul is coming … big time,” he said with a smile.

“Once that’s stopped, there’ll be a few plays off the back. The Lions’ forwards are outstanding in the last 30m.  It’s going to ask a lot of us mentally and physically.”