URC result: Bulls beat Ulster at Loftus — five takeaways

The Bulls made a slow start but then overpowered Ulster to register a 32-16 win in their United Rugby Championship match at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday. Ulster led 9-3 at the break.

Here are the five key takeaways from the match.

R25 tickets worked a charm

It is not known exactly how many fans packed out Loftus Versfeld, but it was by far the biggest crowd to attend a rugby match in South Africa in two years – and since the Covid pandemic hit the world.

The Bulls bosses had reduced ticket prices to R25 in an effort to get 25,000 fans in – 50% of the permitted capacity – and it certainly looked like the union got close to that number.

It will now be hoped that the fans continue to attend live matches.

Bulls’ ill-discipline

The Bulls made a very slow start to the match and they didn’t help their cause by giving away numerous penalties in the first half that kept Ulster in the game.

And it didn’t get better after half-time. The Bulls were often found wanting at the rucks, where their discipline let them down and where Ulster won several penalties. It is an area that the coaching team will target for improvement.

Madosh Tambwe

The Bulls winger may be leaving the union at the end of the current campaign, but he continued to be one of his team’s star players on Saturday.

Tambwe got himself involved in plenty of the action and while he was denied a try by an Ulster player knocking the ball out of his hands while going over the line early in the second half, he’d score a superb five-pointer in the 56th minute, powering over after Harold Vorster had picked up a loose ball on halfway and shifted it to the powerful No 11.

Yellow cards

Hardly a game goes by now that some of the officials’ decisions are not questioned. With the game in the balance in the second half (the Bulls being 20-16 up) Ulster lost lock Kieran Treadwell to the sin-bin for a supposed high shoulder charge on Kurt-Lee Arendse, and then minutes later the Bulls lost Marcell Coetzee to a similar tackle.

Neither tackle was dangerous or malicious, and the yellow cards dished out seemed excessive and unnecessary.

Bulls’ second half

The home team managed to score just a penalty in the first half but powered their way to victory in the second half with four tries. Marcell Coetzee scored from close range at the start of the second spell, before Tambwe went over, and then hooker Johan Grobbelaar crossed the tryline from a driving maul.

Then, with four minutes to go, Arendse intercepted the ball inside his team’s 22m area and ran in his team’s fourth try without a hand being laid on him. It was a quality second half by the Bulls.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries: Coetzee, Tambwe, Grobbelaar, Arendse; Conversions: Smith (2), Steyn (2); Penalties: Smith (2)

Ulster: Try: Marshall; Conversion: Doak; Penalties: Doak (3)