Bulls rediscover front-row firepower to outmuscle Dragons: 'It was more of a mental switch'

Bulls scrum coach Werner Kruger said they had to make a more mental than a physical alteration to rediscover their front-row firepower in their 29-14 win over the Dragons in Newport, Wales, on Friday night.

The Bulls pack was pulverised in their visiting losses to the Stormers in Cape Town and the Sharks in Durban in previous weeks.

The soft underbelly played no small part in their three successive December defeats, stretching from their Champions Cup trip to Exeter Chiefs before the United Rugby Championship (URC) SA derby double.

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Kruger said because of the travel and limited training time, they had to make a more mental adjustment to turn things around.

"Local derbies have a different factor to it," said Kruger, a former Springbok front-rower.

"I think we scrummed well in Cape Town but we definitely let ourselves down in Durban – we are a much better scrumming and forward unit than what we displayed there.

"This week, with the travel, there wasn’t a lot of time to train, so it was more of a mental switch and taking ourselves back to what makes us good.

"We spoke a bit and did what was necessary for us to turn it around, although we didn’t have a lot of time to train."

After starting the match on fire, the Bulls survived a late first-half onslaught from the hosts heading into the break.

They came out of the tunnel with renewed vigour, adding to their reputation as fierce front-row competitors.

The Bulls have won the second-most scrum penalties in the URC (22) behind the Ospreys (28), and showed their prowess against a side, the Dragons, who have won just seven all season.

"Myself and [forwards coach] Russell [Winter] said beforehand that, away from home, it