Rugby: Mitchell relishes taking Bulls by the horns

Former All Blacks coach John Mitchell opted out of a four-year contract as head coach of the United States national side in May. Photo / Getty Images

He's no stranger to high-pressure coaching jobs but John Mitchell knows he has his work cut out with his latest endeavour.

The former All Blacks coach is the man South Africa's struggling Bulls have turned to in a bid to change the fortunes of a team that could only manage four wins this season in Super Rugby - a competition they won in 2007, 2009 and 2010.

The newly-appointed director of rugby at Loftus Versfeld has warned, however, this "won't happen overnight".

"There is a lot of expectation [at the Bulls] but there is pressure wherever you go. The pressure here will be no different to wherever I've been," Mitchell told Sport24.

"Pressure is pressure. Some people handle it and some people don't. It's all about controlling the controllables and that's all I'll be focusing on."

Mitchell opted out of a four-year contract as head coach of the United States national side in May after earlier stints with the Sale Sharks, Western Force and Johannesburg-based Lions.

The 53-year-old insists the Bulls have the quality to compete in a proposed new-look Super Rugby campaign next season - despite the dominance of New Zealand teams in recent years.

"We're in a competition now where if you look at the New Zealand sides since 2014, they've had close to a 94 per cent winning rate against Australian and South African teams and that's jumped up about 40 per cent recently.

"The competition is quite different now to when the Bulls had a dynasty. We've got a lot of work to do, but anything is possible. Things won't happen overnight but it's also important to grab belief along the way and you only do that through winning."

Developing the franchise's player depth will be top of his agenda.

"It's about what we do in terms of making sure that we've always got players pushing through with the right mentality, approach and core skills under pressure," Mitchell said.