Bulls Super Rugby 2020: Fixtures, results, kick off times, squad and scores

The Bulls have it all to do in the 2020 Super Rugby season after a mass exodus of star players following a much improved 2019 campaign in which they finished as the best South African side.

Springboks Lood de Jager, RG Snyman, Handre Pollard, Jesse Kriel and Duane Vermeulen have all headed for pastures new, while the winning smile of Schalk Brits will also be absent after his second retirement following 2019 Rugby World Cup glory.

Matching last year’s surprise fifth-placed finish looks like mission impossible but, with their fellow SA franchises also shedding top names, the Bulls will still look to make their mark on this year’s edition of Super Rugby.

Bulls Super Rugby history

The Bulls kick off the 2020 Super Rugby season as the only South African side to have lifted the trophy since the competition expanded to 12 teams in 1996.

A 25-17 success over SA rivals the Stormers at Soweto’s Orlando Stadium in 2010 capped a sparkling run of three titles in four years for the Pretoria-based franchise.

They had thumped New Zealand’s Chiefs 61-17 after topping the overall log the previous year, raising the silverware in front of a packed home crowd at Loftus Versfeld.

A nerve-wracking one-point victory over the Sharks at Kings Park in Durban secured the first Super Rugby title for a South African team in 2007.

Several years of decline followed for the Gauteng team, with a series of lowly finishes on the overall log during the later years of long-serving coach Frans Ludeke and his successor, Nollis Marais.

Green shoots of recovery began to show under former All Blacks coach John Mitchell in 2018 before Pote Human succeeded the Kiwi to steer the Bulls to a fifth-placed finish in the overall standings as the best South African side in 2019.

An exodus of star players, including Springboks Lood de Jager, RG Snyman and Handre Pollard, has left them with another major rebuilding job to recapture old glories in the 2020 campaign.

Recent Super Rugby record (overall standings)

2019: 5th 2018: 12th 2017: 15th 2016: 9th 2015: 9th

Bulls 2020 Super Rugby squad

Simphiwe Matanzima, Gerhard Steenekamp, Lizo Gqoboka, Trevor Nyakane, Wiehahn Herbst, Dayan van der Westhuizen, Corniel Els, Jaco Visagie, Louis van der Westhuizen, Johan Grobbelaar, Juandre Kruger, Ruan Nortje, Andries Ferreira, Ian Groenewald, Tim Agaba, Ruan Steenkamp, Muller Uys, Marco van Staden, Abongile Nonkontwana, Josh Strauss, Wian Vosloo, Jeandre Rudolph, Ryno Pieterse, Embrose Papier, Ivan van Zyl, Marco Jansen van Vuren, Manie Libbok, Morne Steyn, Chris Smith, Burger Odendaal, Dylan Sage, Johnny Kotze, Nafi Tuitavake, Franco Naude, Marnus Potgieter, Rosko Specman, Cornal Hendricks, Jade Stighling, Warrick Gelant, Divan Rossouw and Richard Kriel.

Bulls 2020 Super Rugby fixtures and results

Times are SAST.