- Benetton coach Kieran Crowley dryly admits he's unsure how much of an advantage his side's Bulls connection in Irne Herbst and Corniel Els holds.
- Els, however, still played under Jake White in December and has experience life in the Loftus camp under him.
- Former Stormers halfback Dewaldt Duvenage is the big fish for the Italians and will go a long way towards leading his team's resistance.
Kieran Crowley, Benetton's head coach, has a distinctly dry sense of humour.
The 59-year-old New Zealander, who takes over as the Italian national coach after Saturday's Rainbow Cup final, was asked in the build-up to the match how influential his trio of South Africans - captain Dewaldt Duvenage, Corniel Els and Irne Herbst - will be against the Bulls.
Els and Herbst previously called Loftus their home-ground.
"Is there an advantage? Yes and no," said Crowley.
"Corniel still played recently for the Bulls and Irne, well he says he knows everyone in that squad, but he actually doesn't know any of the people at all!
"Yeah, in the end everyone does analysis on everyone. Sure the South African guys have given some pointers, but it's really about individual preparation and just controlling what we can control."
Nonetheless, it's undeniable that Crowley has made his SA trio a key part of his squad, who have surprised all and sundry by recovering from a difficult PRO14 campaign to end the Rainbow Cup group phase as the only unbeaten team.
Here's who they are:
DEWALDT DUVENAGE
The 33-year-old former Stormers scrumhalf is a wily campaigner, an efficient operator who does the basics really well.
He joined the Italian side at the conclusion of the 2018 Super Rugby campaign and his second stint with the Cape franchise after a period with French club Perpignan.
Duvenage is the glue of a team that will be looking to end an era on a high as Crowley and various stalwarts are moving on.
And, after the challenges of the 2020/21 campaign, he'll be hoping they can take inspiration from their Rainbow Cup showing to deal with their transitional phase.
"I don't want to make excuses, but the pandemic was a huge factor for us because we had 14 guys in the Italian national squad," said the 33-year-old former Stormers and South Africa under-20 scrumhalf," Duvenage said.
"The national squad was in a bubble for a long time so it meant that we didn't have the services of those 14 players for pretty much the whole season. That had a huge impact on us.
"I think a big turning point might have been a braai we had as a team at the end of the PRO14 season. Kieran threw all the books and manuals we'd been working off during the campaign into the fire and said, 'Right, that is done, now we start afresh.'
"We've bonded through tough times."
The genial halfback admits his previous experiences of rampant Bulls combinations are quite dark ... he didn't win a lot against them.
IRNE HERBST
A former Junior Springbok lock, the impressively bearded second-rower is a typical enforcer.
He enjoys the physical exchanges and stands out as an uncompromising defender.
Caught behind a group of locks at Loftus that included Lood de Jager, RG Snyman and Jason Jenkins, Herbst was loaned to the Southern Kings for the 2017 Super Rugby campaign and performed so admirably that many wondered why the then stumbling Bulls didn't use him.
That showing was enough to see Benetton come knocking and while Herbst saw out the duration of his contract in that year's Currie Cup, he was quick to embark on his new chapter.
"It's going to be exciting to face the Bulls," said Herbst.
"I've been chatting to the boys the entire week, we know what they bring and it's easy, it is like the Springboks - you know what they are going to bring, it is just the way they do it, they do it so well."
CORNIEL ELS
Despite an excellent pedigree at junior level, the 27-year-old's career at Loftus was characterised by coaches who were clearly caught in two minds over his worth.
A stalwart in the junior sides, injuries and the accompanying doubts from his mentors saw him always being among the contracted group yet used extremely sparingly.
That dynamic came to a head at the end of 2018, when the Pumas decided to snap him up.
However, Pote Human had by then been appointed as head coach, the one man who truly rated Els.
He was summarily loaned back for the Super Rugby campaign and there was a fair amount of annoyance between both parties about the arrangement.
The Lowvelders demanded to get the full value of out their signing and denied a Bulls request to use him past mid-April of 2019, while Human was unhappy that he was let go in the first place.
Els returned to Loftus on a full-time basis last year, only for the pandemic to strike and Human to depart.
Jake White decided to keep him on the books due to a shortage of experience among his hookers and Els never let his team down when some rare opportunities came around.
However, once Benetton were looking for a short-term option to help with a front row injury crisis, the former Grey College star waved goodbye.