The Bulls have been released into the streets of Dublin and are heading towards the designated ring for the United Rugby Championship bullfight, Croke Park.
Besides their traditional attributes of aggression, strength and occasional unpredictability, the Bulls will engage in Saturday’s spectacle with the local matador, Leinster, boasting a championship-winning mentality, or culture, if you like, that has been firmly established over the past 50 years.
Besides the fact that the Bulls have now qualified for three URC finals in the past four years, and have seen off Leinster in two semi-finals (2021-22 and 2023-24), the Pretoria-based outfit is also the only South African franchise to have won Super Rugby – they did so on three occasions – and the most successful team in the historical Currie Cup since the domestic competition became an annual tournament in 1968.
Originally established in 1938, when Northern Transvaal seceded from the Transvaal Rugby Football Union, the Bulls won the Currie Cup for the first time in 1946. It was, however, only in 1968 that their formidable rise began.
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They clinched back-to-back championships in 1968 and 1969, with the legendary Springbok lock Frik du Preez, voted South Africa’s greatest rugby player of the 20th century, famously recording a try, penalty goal and drop goal in the 28-13 win against Western Province in 1969.
The Bulls suffered a shock 9-11 loss at the hands of Griquas in the 1970 final in Kimberley but stormed back with an unprecedented hat-trick of Currie Cup titles from 1973 to 1975. They followed that up with four more outright titles from 1977 to 1981.
This period, with 11 Currie Cup titles, including two shared ones, in 14 years, is still regarded as the Bulls’ glory era domestically.
Although Western Province dominated the early 1980s, the Bulls again achieved back-to-back titles in 1987 and 1988. The former final saw Springbok sharpshooter Naas Botha, in pouring rain, nailing four penalty goals and four dropped goals to single-handedly demolish Transvaal 24-18.
Since 1968, the Bulls have won 19 outright Currie Cup titles, followed by Western Province’s 11. Another Bulls hat-trick, from 2002 to 2004, served as a prelude to their supremacy in Super Rugby towards the end of the 2000s.
Their conquest of the southern hemisphere took off in 2007 when they pipped the top-of-the-table Sharks 20-19 in front of a record crowd of 54,000 spectators in Durban. It is still regarded as one of the most dramatic Super Rugby finals of all time, with Springbok winger Bryan Habana conjuring up a try from nowhere in the 84th minute to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat – pardon the pun.
To prove that 2007 was no fluke, the Bulls recorded back-to-back Super Rugby final triumphs in 2009 and 2010, walloping the Chiefs 61-17 and seeing off the Stormers 25-17 respectively.
And, now, the Bulls have been flexing their muscles in the URC for the past four years, reaching three out of four finals.
They lost 13-18 to the Stormers in 2021-22 and 16-21 to the Glasgow Warriors last year. The Bulls have now finished second on the URC table for a second season on the trot and have been in hot form during the current campaign, culminating in their convincing 25-13 semi-final win against the Sharks last weekend.
If there is one distinct common thread between the Bulls’ success stories in the Currie Cup, Super Rugby and the URC over the past half-century, apart from a powerful pool of playing talent, of course, it is the quality of the respective coaches.
During the Currie Cup glory era of the 1960s through to the 1980s, a high-ranking police officer, the late Brigadier “Buurman” van Zyl, ruled the roost at Loftus Versfeld.
A revered but relentless taskmaster, in the old-school fashion, Van Zyl was a devout disciplinarian and fitness fanatic, who had scant regard for reputation. He once sent packing and reduced to tears a star flanker of his, Kallie Knoetze, who in 1979 rose to the top four in the World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight rankings, after Knoetze had pitched up late for a practice session.
Whatever his methods, Van Zyl got results and it’s hard to argue with his record of 11 Currie Cup titles in 14 seasons.
The Currie Cup and Super Rugby successes of the 2000s were masterminded by Heyneke Meyer, an astute student of the game and passionate motivator who knew exactly how to extract the very best from his troops.
Boasting extensive experience, having coached both Leicester Tigers (2008-09) and Stade Français (2018-19), Meyer was at the helm of South Africa’s Rugby World Cup campaign in 2015, with the Springboks being narrowly beaten 18-20 by the All Blacks in the semi-finals.
The current man in charge succeeded in taking South Africa to the RWC crown in 2007.
Arguably one of the most experienced coaches in the business, Jake White is something of a cross between Buurman van Zyl and Heyneke Meyer, in terms of discipline and strategic ingenuity. Certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, White is a wily customer and has done a fantastic job of moulding an essentially young and inexperienced Bulls group into a highly competitive machine over the past few years.
And, he is ready to steer them to the next frontier.
