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Playing the last of their four Super Rugby matches abroad against the Chiefs in Hamilton, the men from Pretoria seemed menacingly on course for a third Australasian victory as they held sway 16-8 at halftime after 40 minutes of high-calibre physicality and mauling zest.
But the Chiefs are certainly made of increasingly stern stuff these days, and instead were the ones to produce a second wind in an enthralling contest to power their way over the line 28-22 at Waikato Stadium.
Gracious losing captain Pierre Spies was quick to commend the hosts for their three-tries-to-one triumph, marked by the Chiefs pack standing toe to toe with their traditionally brawny opponents all night and backline maestros like Sonny Bill Williams becoming ever more influential as the second half progressed.
“They put us under pressure at the breakdown and deserved to win,” said Spies, summing up an unflappable showing by the New Zealanders, who produced crucial spells of fierce counter-rucking when it was particularly needed.
The Bulls never surrendered their spirit, but perhaps tiring bodies were simply not able to match seemingly willing minds as thoughts involuntarily drifted toward getting a foot on the plane for the long haul back to face main SA conference rivals the Stormers at Loftus next weekend.
All is not lost for the Bulls, that’s for sure, as they return to more familiar soil: they did bag a losing bonus point and also denied the Chiefs a four-try extra log point themselves, even if the outcome meant the Mooloo Men return to the top of the overall table with four-point superiority over the second-placed Stormers.
Jean de Villiers and company will nevertheless seize back supremacy rapidly if they beat the Sharks at Mr Price Kings Park.
Frans Ludeke’s charges could still sport a respectable tour harvest of 11 points from a possible 20, despite losing both fixtures on the New Zealand leg.
Great foes the Stormers currently have a one-point edge over the Bulls with Saturday’s Durban game in hand – win that one and they can ensure some useful “daylight” between them ahead of the humungous Highveld battle on June 2.
Whilst the Bulls may be curtailed to fourth (though only behind the Brumbies because of the table rules) they are still only five points behind the pace-setting Chiefs.
So both they and the Stormers retain decent enough chances of ending ordinary season as the best-placed side, even if their own clash could be a make-or-breaker in that regard.
A glance at the fixture list tells you that the Chiefs must play three of their four remaining games away, and all of them are NZ derbies.
In addition, their only home match is against those cunning Crusaders, whom few would bet against still sneaking into the playoffs despite a strange inconsistency this season.
The Bulls’ quartet of games still to play are also derbies, but three of them will be at Loftus – against the Stormers, Cheetahs and Lions. Their only trip will be the short flight to Durban to meet the Sharks on the Friday night of July 6.
That is not to say that the Chiefs don’t have a tantalising chance now to set up a first-time home final.
Their healthy situation on the overall table is helped by a hugely successful mini-tour of South Africa in mid-April, where they earned nine out of 10 points by beating the Cheetahs and Sharks.
Perhaps the Bulls not quite managing, by contrast, to get past the post in either of their matches in the Land of the Long White Cloud will be a decisive factor in the race for that home showpiece?
That said, all sorts of permutations and twists and turns in both overall and conference terms still lie ahead ...
*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing
