The Bulls banished their memories from the last time they were in Treviso, during their Rainbow Cup grand finale demolition in June last year, this time destroying Benetton 44-22 on Friday night.
The men from Pretoria scored five second-half tries, kicked their goal-kicking opportunities and subdued the early Benetton physicality to triumph with ease at the end.
They had faced loads of questions about their travelling jitters up until their trip to Italy this week, following two defeats on their European tour of this year’s United Rugby Championship.
But the men in pink shone as bright as their away strip suggested.
The game only truly began after four minutes in the second half when Marco van Staden’s bulldozing run drew defenders, which created space for Embrose Papier to exploit and feed Ruan Nortje for the first try of the match.
The Bulls lock’s score near the posts broke the shackles of the contest that looked like two old-school South African club rugby teams going at each other.
Soon after, the Bulls decided to go for the corner for the first time after receiving a penalty in Benetton’s half – clearly feeling far more confident than before.
It led to a multiphase sequence that developed exquisitely for No 8 Elrigh Louw to burrow over the try line for the second visiting touchdown of the night.
Benetton, who fed off a Tomas Albornoz penalty staple up to that point, got their first try following sustained pressure that led to loose-forward Manuel Zuliani darting over.
Smith and Albornoz traded more penalties after some momentum-sapping water breaks as the margin swung no greater than a point whenever each flyhalf score his goal-kicks.
Substitute hooker Jan-Hendrik Wessels, though, broke the to-and-fro of the flyhalfs with a
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