Nutshell: Sloppy Bulls somehow manage to tame Cheetahs
Jesse Kriel scored the Bulls' match-winning try. Photo: Lee Warren/Gallo Images.
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The Bulls dominated the second half as they turned the tables on the Cheetahs to win their Super Rugby match 20-14 at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, as the visitors failing to capitalise on an 11-3 lead at the break.
The hosts scored two tries in the last half-hour to seal the win, with replacement flank Jacques Potgieter crashing over from a ruck in the 54th minute and then outside centre Jesse Kriel cutting inside to beat the cover defence and score in the 74th minute.
Who was the star in this match?
It says much for the quality of the game that the star performer was a loosehead prop, but Cheetahs No 1 Charles Marais produced a superb display of scrummaging. He left Bulls tighthead Jacobie Adriaanse more often than not face-down in the turf. He also provided his team with a wonderful set-piece platform.
Key themes and events
If he has not done so already, Bulls coach Nollis Marais really needs to lay down the law with his players in terms of the number of shocking basic errors they make. Several straightforward passes were dropped and lineout ball would be won but then the ball would fail to be delivered from the set-piece. A telling example of how this cost the Bulls came in the 63rd minute. Replacement prop Lizo Gqoboka counter-rucked superbly to win the ball back, but then scrumhalf Piet van Zyl couldn’t take the pass cleanly and then conceded a penalty at the ruck, which flyhalf Niel Marais slotted. If players keep making the same mistakes week after week, surely letters of dismissal would be coming in any other industry …
The utterly dominant Cheetahs scrum laid the platform for their attacking work in the first 50 minutes and the opening try came from the first scrum of the game as the Bulls were pushed towards the touchline, right wing William Small-Smith put a deft grubber through and forced a five-metre lineout. The Bulls pulled down the initial rolling maul, conceding a penalty which was kicked to touch and the impressive Schoeman rumbled over.
The Bulls’ first try came after flank Nick de Jager and Adriaanse had combined well with ball-in-hand and also managed to both get offloads away. But De Jager was anonymous in his key roles as an openside flank and the balance of the Bulls’ loose trio still looks off.
Jamba Ulengo was given the man of the match award by the SuperSport commentators and he made the initial break for the Kriel try. But by often standing too deep on attack, the Bulls are not creating enough space for the exciting attacking players they have in their backline.
