Road-raging Bulls swap home comforts for 'camaraderie' with Leinster's perfect home record on line

RTÉ News​

13 hours ago

Beware the rampaging Bulls, who have swapped home comforts for camaraderie.
But Leinster know more than anyone the dangers posed by Jake White's road warriors.
It was in Dublin where the first big URC shock happened when Leinster, who had come off a 62-point thrashing of Glasgow the week before, came a cropper at the hands of the Bulls back in the 2022 semi-final.
The inaugural tournament saw the Pretoria side stun Johnny Sexton and co. at the RDS, winning 27-26, with Leinster scoring a converted try in overtime.
While they went on to lose the final to Stormers in Cape Town, Bulls demonstrated that they meant business in their new environment.
Of the 27 knockout games that have taken place in the URC since the first season in 2021/22, seven have been won by the away team.
Five of that tally was made up from Munster and Glasgow Warriors wins over the last two seasons, which famously resulted in titles for the away teams.
"I wouldn't say we take anything from that," Bulls skipper Ruan Nortje told RTÉ Sport when asked about those feats.
"Every year is a new year, [it's] a new game, and a new final, so we can't read too much into what's happened in previous years.
"We can just go on with what we've been doing this year.
"We've been really good away from home this season for some reason, and the group has been getting on quite well especially on tour."
He's not wrong.
Bulls have won seven of their nine URC games away from Loftus Versfeld this season and a seventh road win at Croke Park this afternoon would result in their first ever URC title.
They've lost two previous finals, both in South Africa, but this is their first decider away from home comforts.
"We've actually toured quite well this season," Jake White, the Bulls' charismatic director of rugby, said.
"Our win record is better than most. I don't know why it is, we happen to have played really well away from home.
"It's a little bit reminiscent of when I was at the Brumbies [in Super Rugby], we went 11 games unbeaten away from home.
"Sometimes when you've got that recipe going for you it counts in your favour; you enjoy being together, you enjoy the players spending time together.
"And when you win, those memories, those feelings that you have when you get back as a group is special as well.
"It doesn't matter where you play, whether it's at Croke Park, Aviva, RDS, South Africa, the challenge is exactly the same, you are going to have to play well to beat them."
For all the fine work the Bulls have done in others' fields, Leinster have a fine record on their own patch as well, including winning all four of the games played in GAA HQ.
Their Champions Cup loss to Saints, devastating as it was, is the only blemish this season, while they have averaged 22-point winning margins in their 11 home URC victories to this point.
Add in handsome wins against Harlequins and Glasgow in the European knockouts and it's even more impressive.
In fact, no team has even come within a score of Leinster by the final play, Connacht and Glasgow's losing margin of eight the closest they have been run.
Leinster lost their regular-season clash with Bulls to a late penalty by a point and today's game is shaping up to be a one-score affair as well.