Nutshell report: Hopeless and more hopeless Bulls!

The Bulls suffered the ultimate embarrassment when they lost 20-21 to the Sunwolves in Tokyo on Saturday.

It just illustrated again how far the men from Pretoria are from being a force again.

Remember, this is the same Sunwolves that earlier lost 83-17 to the Hurricanes.

Who was the star of this match?

Slim pickings obviously but Bulls centre Burger Odendaal scored a brilliant individual try and even kicked well on occasion.

Key events and moments

• The Bulls weren’t ever really in control, so when wing Travis Ismaiel went over in the corner in the third quarter to score, it gave the menf from Pretoria the illusion of a comfortable 20-11 lead. Seven minutes later, centre Jan Serfontein was yellow carded for not rolling away. It was a turning point as Takaaki Nakazuru went over shortly afterwards to give the Sunwolves a foothold.
• Rather undeservingly, the Bulls still had a chance to win when replacement flyhalf Francois Brummer had a shot at goal but missed.
• This was arguably the poorest performance by a Bulls side for a decade. They still don’t possess the basic skills to even try and implement their new running game. The amount of knocks they made trying to complete off-loads was astounding and the decision-making is non-existent. That was illustrated by their poor kicking game.
• Filo Tiatia’s Sunwolves are by no means a powerhouse. They still keep their opponents in games with errors but against this hapless bunch Bulls, they deserved to win because they kept their heads so well.

Point scorers

Sunwolves – Tries: Rahboni Warren-Vosayaco, Takaaki Nakazuru. Conversion: Yu Tamara. Penalties: Hayden Cripps (2), Tamara.

Bulls – Tries: Burger Odendaal, Travis Ismaiel. Conversions: Tian Schoeman (2). Penalties: Schoeman (2).