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They have won the Super Rugby fixture against the Waratahs and moved to the top of the South African Conference. All well and good. But the Bulls gave a textbook display of why they’re probably the face of the frustration South African sides have dished up by way of rugby this season.
Having dominated the Waratahs’ scrum, possession and territory, Pote Human’s men once again created a slew of chances they sometimes looked like they had no intention of taking, undermining their toil in the Pretoria sun with a lack of composure every time the try line came into view.
The performance meant the Bulls shot up to second on the overall log behind the Crusaders, a side whose progress they get an opportunity to stymie with their fixture at Loftus Versfeld on Friday.
The two sides began the game by retaining the ball well when in attack and standing firm in defence, the visitors thanks to a system that held and the hosts from the occasional lusty hit by Hanro Liebenberg preventing the Waratahs from giving the ball width.
But that staring contest lasted only until the ninth minute, when Bulls fullback Warrick Gelant’s clever angle of run met a smart draw and give by inside centre Johnny Kôtze to open the try scoring for the day.
The origins of that try were locks RG Snyman and Jannes Kirsten reacting first to a lucky bounce from scrum half Ivan van Zyl’s box kick and Rosko Specman providing thrust before the ball was recycled to Gelant.
Not to be outdone, the Waratahs capitalised on a dizzying combination of smart running lines and offloading in the tackle to put scrum half Nick Phipps over, beating the Bulls defence on the blindside that leaked opportunities against the Stormers last weekend, the pièce de résistance of that move a wonderful back door pass by inside centre Karmichael Hunt.
But it didn’t take long for the visitors’ confidence to be punctured by a first scrum of the game that left the Waratahs in a mangled wreck after Lizo Gqoboka destroyed experienced Wallabies tight head Sekope Kepu in an area that would be a regular source of penalties for the Bulls.
With their tails up, the Bulls scored next after number eight Duane Vermeulen read Phipps’ pass from a line-out and, with space for a change to run into, took the longest 40m sprint to the try line, swatting aside Curtis Rona in the process.
For all their confidence, the hosts continued to not take their chances – they butchered two in the last 10 minutes of the first half. Fears that the Bulls had once again given away a game they should have won surfaced when Rona’s converted try levelled the scores. Thankfully, replacement prop Simphiwe Matanzima scored the winning try to put Human out of his misery. – City Press correspondent
