'Mission completed,' says Jake after Bulls put Zebre to the sword

Bulls director of rugby Jake White was relieved that his team avoided a sucker punch in Italy and instead pulverised the luckless basement dwellers Zebre Parma 45-7 on Friday night.

The Bulls scored six tries and 45 points without reply after Zebre took a surprising 7-0 lead in a period when Marcell Coetzee was serving time in the bin for a dangerous infringement.

SCORECARD | United Rugby Championship - Zebre v Bulls

The victory meant the men from Pretoria could put some of their travelling shivers aside and banish the memory of the Benetton meltdown during the Rainbow Cup final last year.

"We want to try to play well every time we play, so we didn't banish anything by coming here and winning," said White.

"I thought we played quite nicely tonight (Friday night). You don't score 45 points away from home ... we had a lot of other opportunities, like a try disallowed for a knock-on.

"This is what coaches want for a short one-week turnaround after we left Monday night and got here and got the job done. Mission completed.

"Now we've got two weeks before we play in the URC again against Munster. At least there's enough to [build on]."

Defeat, however, consigned Zebre to their 20th straight loss, their eighth of the United Rugby Championship (URC).

They also missed four players to the Italian Six Nations side that's busy on international duty.

But White said they are due one, although he wasn't happy it wasn't against his men.

"Zebre are going to start winning; they won't keep losing forever and ever," White said.

"The law of averages tells you that someone is going to be on the end of a result when Zebre get it right. We're happy we didn't get ambushed and found a way to get a comprehensive win."

"You can either look at the glass as