Bulls are SA’s likeliest climbers as URC grind returns

Was it the right move by Jake White to throw his prime, United Rugby Championship troops into Currie Cup combat last weekend?

We will have a much clearer idea by late afternoon next Saturday.

But the fact remains that his charges – who importantly restored overdue winning ways to Loftus in trouncing Griquas 40-3 in the domestic competition on Friday night – seem poised to potentially make the best strides of South Africa’s URC quartet as that tournament resumes in the next few days.

READ | 5 talking points: European Cup QFs

There were obvious blessings to the Bulls in the fact that they were absent from the collectively unsuccessful European Champions/Challenge Cup quarterfinals played abroad by the other three (Sharks, Stormers and Lions) as they now trek home – mostly in ludicrous “cattle class” -- nursing mental and physical bruises.

There’s no rest for the proverbial wicked: all 16 URC teams play this weekend in the second-last round as the race for best possible log positions/seedings intensifies.

But for the seventh-placed Bulls, last season’s losing finalists, a golden opportunity exists to climb toward a safer final berth on the table.

That there was an eight-day turnaround, rather than the more conventional week, between the Griquas date in the Currie Cup and this Saturday’s home URC clash with basement Zebre would have helped encourage the Bulls masterminds to go Full Monty selection-wise in the first-named match.

Likely to be the freshest-legged of the SA teams, that the Italian outfit are their visitors – showing a 0/16 record so far – only hikes the attractiveness of the Bulls romping to a vital, bonus-point win.

Defeat is unthinkable: the Bulls round off their league programme a week later against already confirmed