Two notably erratic performances on the trot, but the Bulls have shown the mark of champions to gratefully bank away victories each time … and now they embark on a handy little run of fixtures back at Fortress Loftus.
a Rob Houwing article
So as much as they will mull over the split-personality showings against the Lions and Cheetahs respectively with some urgency, Victor Matfield and company will also know they can play a great deal better – and that is likely to spell bad news for some of their next few opponents visiting the Jacaranda City.

First up now will be the surprise-package Highlanders, similarly unbeaten after two outings in the New Zealand conference, next Saturday.

The Bulls will probably be fairly heavily favoured by bookies to stave off their first challenge from overseas of 2011, especially if last season’s meeting against the Otago side – also at Loftus – is any yardstick.

Then they triumphed by a comfortable enough 50-35, even if both teams’ defences earned some brickbats for leakiness as the try count was a “tennis score”: 7-5 to the Bulls.

After the Highlanders obstacle comes a bye for the Pretoria team, after which they have further Loftus dates against the Stormers and a return meeting with the Lions – so there must be a good chance, even if it is admittedly early to be making this kind of forecast, of the Bulls going abroad with a five-out-of-five record.

For the moment, though, observers may argue that the Bulls are taking the popular notion that the new Super Rugby structure is a marathon, not a sprint, just a little too seriously – by only really “playing” in one half of every game.

Last weekend they were not far off sublime in the first period against the Lions, before fading badly and so nearly being hauled in; in Bloemfontein on Friday they chose the opposite route by appearing to be down and out just short of the hour mark and then staging a concerted, successful rally from a 15-point deficit.

It was a heart-breaking second reverse in the competition for the Cheetahs, who had led 23-8 and appeared set at one stage not only to win but possibly even grab a bonus point as a fourth try looked highly feasible.

There might also have been even greater daylight in scoreboard terms  and thus a situation from which the Bulls would probably not have escaped – had flyhalf and acting captain for 78 minutes, Naas Olivier, been better off the tee.

But then some home legs began to tire and, with the Bulls set scrum suddenly waking up to a remarkable degree in the final quarter as a vital springboard to their revival, the champions got a head of steam and even managed to wipe out their heavy losses earlier in the possession department – they finished with just over 50 percent of ball overall after long periods where the Cheetahs held clear-cut, 70-30 sort of sway.

Whereas the Cheetahs benching some men who had been big on industry for the best part of the encounter — like tighthead WP Nel and scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius – appeared to rip a lot of oomph from them, Bulls substitutes like Danie Rossouw, Flip van der Merwe and Derick Kuun, by contrast, played instrumental roles in that team’s sterling second wind.

Very meagre comfort for the Free Staters was the losing bonus point to open their account on the log, but things don’t get much easier for them yet as they move from playing the champions to last season’s runners-up, the Stormers, at Newlands next weekend.

And their rather obvious gamble of deciding right before kick-off to risk fielding regular captain Juan Smith bombed horribly: the Springbok “did” his ankle again and hobbled off even as latecomers in the crowd were still taking their seats.

Was this an early case of a South African franchise, despite the positive noises about co-operation and good sense in a World Cup year, not boxing too clever on the injury front?