Hungry Bulls win a seesawing battle with the Sharks

Ken Borland at Loftus

The Bulls prevailed 39-33 in an entertaining Super Rugby match against the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night, meaning they leapfrog their way up into third place in the South African Conference.

As befits a side that was at the bottom of the conference at the start of the game, the Bulls played with tremendous hunger and passion, putting in a stout defensive effort to quell the physical Sharks forwards and their dangerous backs.

The Bulls also showed plenty of endeavour with ball in hand, scoring five tries.

The bonus point the Sharks gained at the death through a Robert du Preez penalty lifted them to 24 points on the log, the same as the Bulls, but because they have won just four games and the Pretoria side five, the KwaZulu-Natalians are fourth in the standings.

The Bulls conceded a soft try just after they went 39-23 up, which ultimately cost them a bonus point and second place in the conference.

Who was the star in this match?

Jesse Kriel coming up against another strong contender for the Springbok number 13 jersey in Lukhanyo Am meant that the Maritzburg College product was always going to be fired up. It’s not that Am played poorly at all, he was impressive as well, but Kriel had more impact on the game. It was his grubber through that put the flying Warrick Gelant in for the first try in the 11^th minute and he then scored himself four minutes with a searing line-break 30 metres out that stretched the Bulls’ lead to 12-0. In the second half, he made an important dart that played a role in Lood de Jager’s 65^th-minute try.

Key moments and themes

• The back-and-forth nature of the exciting game began from the opening kickoff and there was drama in the 10^th minute as the Sharks seemed to have opened the scoring through a try by fullback Curwin Bosch. But Bosch had tripped his opposite number Gelant as he was on the charge when the Bulls still had possession, leading to a yellow card instead.
• The Bulls made good use of high kicks on to Sharks left wing Makazole Mapimpi, who at times seem stranded on a coral atoll with sharks all around him in the water. He was unfortunate, however, when Kriel’s grubber bounced wickedly away from him in cover defence, allowing Gelant to snatch the ball and score.
• The Sharks’ backline is certainly a threatening one with ball in hand though, and when their forwards start offloading, they become lethal. The Sharks’ opening try, in the 23^rd minute, was a case in point. Wing Sbu Nkosi’s great line-break was followed by strong carries by excellent hooker Akker van der Merwe, who is pushing hard for higher honours, and prop Tendai Mtawarira, who produced a superb offload to Bosch, who came racing through to score in one of several impressive moments for him.
• The Sharks actually led 23-22 after 51 minutes, but two superbly well-calculated periods of play by the Bulls thereafter produced tries and settled the contest. Strong cvarries by flank Marco van Staden and lock RG Snyman were followed by magnificent, composed work by Gelant as he controlled the bouncing ball on the ground without knocking-on, getting an offload away inside for wing Johnny Kotze to score.

Points scorers

Bulls – Tries: Warrick Gelant, Jesse Kriel, Roelof Smit, Johnny Kotze, Lood de Jager. Conversions: Handre Pollard (4). Penalty: Pollard (2)

Sharks – Tries: Curwin Bosch, Jacques Vermeulen, Jean-Luc du Preez. Conversions: Robert du Preez (3). Penalties: Bosch, Du Preez (3).

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