Bulls mentor White hopes for smarter rugby from his charges ahead of Benetton threat, playoff charge

Bulls director of rugby Jake White said they need to start putting their best rugby foot forward as the United Rugby Championship reaches the business end.

The Bulls host Italian side Benetton at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday with a move up the log in their sights.

A bonus-point win will move them to sixth place with 48 points, with Edinburgh, who beat Zebre 29-26 on Friday, just two points ahead of them.

URC Log standings

White wasn't too concerned with their final log position, saying that if they continue to improve, the results will take care of themselves.

"My message to the boys is that we need to play our best rugby at the back end of the competition," White said.

"If you've done so, then you've progressed in the way that you want to, instead of playing all of your best rugby at the start of the tournament and not making the playoffs.

"We've grown and developed a lot in most aspects of our game, but we're not where we want to be yet, but in the Benetton game, we want to see improvement in all the areas we've been working on."

The Bulls will be without hard-running inside centre Harold Vorster, with versatile former Springbok Cornal Hendricks filling in for him.

Ever the optimist, White has already identified a positive in Vorster's Covid-19 enforced absence.

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"I'm not too worried that even though he might be different, he'll bring a different strength and the strength he's got," White said.

"The strengths he brings may contribute to the style of rugby that we want to play."

Benetton shocked the Bulls in last year's Rainbow Cup final, romping to an unexpectedly wide 35-8 defeat.

It was part of the Bulls' rather painful learning curve in European rugby, but as the