10 months after a shocking first 'date', Bulls want to show Benetton their improved selves

If ever there's a match that will show how the Bulls have progressed from being the kingpins of South Africa to (eventual) tough nuts in the United Rugby Championship (URC), it will be Saturday's meeting with Benetton at Loftus.

Turn the clock back 10 months and one will be reminded of a certain Rainbow Cup final that ended with Jake White's troops being humbled 35-8 by the plucky, inspired Italians.

On that inauspicious afternoon in Treviso, the Bulls were - more than anything - hammered at the breakdown and suffered the consequences.

Benetton, conscious of how the home side struggled at ruck-time against the Stormers a fortnight ago, might believe a similar assault could be effective.

Yet, despite the sometimes painful process of getting there, the Bulls are starting to get a grip of the one area of the game that still tends to baffle the South African outfits in the URC.

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"For two years, we just played local sides (before the Rainbow Cup final)," Nollis Marais, the Bulls' breakdown coach, said on Tuesday.

"We saw the same pictures at the breakdowns and on attack for several months. Suddenly, you're flying to Italy and it's the first time in two years you're playing an overseas team that paints a totally different picture.

"That's where we realised that whatever level we thought we were operating on, we were behind the European sides. We needed to adapt very quicker.

"But, as we've been exposed to a bigger variety of teams, we've definitely become better. At the start of the campaign, we were one of the worst sides in terms of carries. Now we're one of the best. We've made a huge step up."   

The pain was real though,