Jan Serfontein soars in a so-so Bulls display

It is debatable what the Bulls took out of their 34-21 victory over the Sunwolves at Loftus last night.

Naturally, the Pretoria-based franchise will be happy to finally have recorded their first win of this year’s campaign.

But it would be delusional of them to believe that they are suddenly on track.

To be honest, there’ll be a feeling that the Bulls are in for a very tough tour of New Zealand, for which they depart today.

Nollis Marais’ emerging side still lacks the basic skills to pull of their new attacking game-plan.

Too many passes didn’t go to hand and their attacking structure was lacking at times, with runners loitering in each other’s way.

Flanker Renaldo Bothma will almost certainly be cited after he was handed a red card within the first minute of the second half.

The Namibian skipper recklessly swung his arm into Sunwolves captain Eddie Quirk’s jaw and was unsurprisingly given his marching orders.

After all, this is the era of the strict law on high tackles.

It’s possible that Marais’ touring squad might need to be changed.

Lock Jason Jenkins’ knock in the act of dotting the ball down also prevented the Bulls from gaining a bonus point.

A major positive though was the return of Springbok midfielder Jan Serfontein.

The outside centre scored a brace of tries and distributed well.

His organisation abilities will be vital as flyhalf Handre Pollard continues to struggle to find form, especially with his goal-kicking.

The Bulls might’ve been run closer had the Sunwolves handled their own ball better but in general, the hosts’ defending wasn’t bad for a side one man down.

Point scorers: Bulls 34 (17) – Tries: Jan Serfontein (2), Pierre Schoeman, Jason Jenkins. Conversions: Handre Pollard (3), Tian Schoeman. Penalties: Pollard, Schoeman. Sunwolves 21 (14) – Tries: Kenki Fukuoka, Eddie Quirk. Conversion: Jumpei Ogura. Penalties: Hayden Cripps (3).

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