Penultimate day of the United Rugby Championship and Benetton Treviso closes its tour of South Africa facing the strong Bulls. In Pretoria a very tough match for the green and whites, but for Marco Bortolami’s boys also the first “almost” match point in the race for the playoffs.
The victory against the Sharks last week took Treviso to 48 pointsfour more than Connacht and Lions, currently outside the top 8. Benetton are tied with Edinburgh and with one point less than Ulster, with five teams therefore enclosed in just 5 points for three places in the playoffs. And with the direct match against Edinburgh in Monigo in the last round it is clear that every point will be fundamental for Lamaro and his teammates.
The Bulls, however, are certain of the post season, with the current fourth place, but with only 4 points away from the top the South Africans are chasing a better final position with a view to the playoffs. As mentioned, the boys from Pretoria are one of the strongest teams in the URC and imposing yourself in their home is not easy. He will need a high-performance pack, an attentive defense for 80 minutes and an attack that knows how to sting every time it has the opportunity to score points.
“Against the Bulls it will be an even more physical match and they are even more dangerous in open play. We will have to watch out for the broken game – said Ignacio Brex on the eve of the matchhighlighting what the key factors are –. The first is physicality and the second is territory. They are a very abrasive team when they enter the opponents’ 22 metres, so we want to keep them away and we will have to hit them in their weak points in defence. We understand that every point counts. The ranking is really short. Here in South Africa we will have to give our best and we must score points. We did it against the Sharks and against the Bulls we try to take as many points as possible.”.
