Derby: Bulls to repeat history?

Cape Town – The disadvantages for their hosts are fairly obvious anyway, but the Bulls may also be motivated by precedent when they tackle a travel-weary Stormers side at Newlands on Saturday (19:10).

This top-of-conference Super Rugby derby comes with the two sides likely now to be South Africa’s best respective hopes of overall glory this season, and both off a sequence of successive wins.

Whilst the Bulls will be carrying the odd painful scar of their own from a ground-out victory over a limited but desperately-motivated Sharks in Durban last weekend -- and that can’t be summarily dismissed as a drawback of their own – they still have the better pre-game deal as it is always a tougher ask for a side returning from their four-strong overseas roster to pick themselves up mentally and physically for a crucial clash with particularly fierce rivals the next.