Africa-Press – South-Africa. Marcell Coetzee in the forwards and Madosh Tambwe in the
backs were immense as the Bulls made heavy weather of their 29-24 win over
Munster in their United Rugby Championship fixture at Loftus on Saturday.
The last overseas visiting team here, the Highlanders from
New Zealand, were massacred here (38-13), which was the final time Loftus saw a
Super Rugby encounter before Covid put paid to the old norm.
And at 26-3 at half-time, many would have expected the same
kind of massacre to befall the men from Munster, but the Bulls couldn’t press
home their advantage in the second half.
AS IT HAPPENED |
URC: Bulls 29-24
In fact, the Bulls scored just three points in the second
half despite bossing the first half.
Munster had never heard the full blare of Kaptein blowing
out of the Loftus stadium speakers. Although fractionally full, the Bulls
faithful let the visitors know that they’d feel the full “Pretoria
welcome”.
On the pitch, a blue mist descended upon the Irish, who were
overwhelmed by the intensity the Bulls can bring when they lock horns at home.
Bulls captain Coetzee was a big part of their dominance. He
gave as good as he got in the breakdowns, as you’d expect, but he was
everywhere in defence and carried like a man possessed.
He neutralised the Chris Cloete threat and made loud calls
to be included in the next Springbok squad for the Wales inbound tour.
The only blight to their start was that the Bulls didn’t
take care of their restart ball when Munster kicked at them.
After one such fumble, Jack O’Donoghue might have scored the
first try of the game from a lineout drive five metres out, but the touchdown
was overturned when the TMO spotted obstruction in the maul set.
It was clear from early on that this was going to be a
contest of who carried the heavier oxcart into the lineout maul; such was the
appetite to drive from both teams.
Munster was eager to give the Bulls a healthy dose of their
medicine. The Bulls didn’t want to backtrack in their own kraal.
But Bulls director of rugby Jake White wanted them to give
the ball air and take the Irishmen on, stretching their lungs at highveld
altitude.
Wing Madosh Tambwe answered the call in the 14th minute when
he received a Marcell Coetzee offload and beat four players on his way to
scoring the first try of the match.
Alex Kendellen was shown yellow after putting a no-arms
tackle, popularly known as a “grass cutter” on Bulls No 8 Elrigh Louw
close to the visitors’ try line.
The 14 men Munster struggled to cope, and the Bulls cashed
in, first with a penalty and then a runaway Walt Steenkamp try seven minutes
from the interval.
Good Bulls hands were again the catalyst before Kurt-Lee
Arendse’s dummy gone wrong fell lavishly in the lock’s lamp to score untouched.
Munster, meanwhile, survived by a solitary Ben Healy penalty
at the break, while the Bulls’ two converted tries and four Chris Smith
penalties took them to 26 handy points.
Kendellen atoned for his earlier sin-binning by scoring the
first Munster try of the afternoon when he hammered his frame over the line at
close range 15 minutes into the second half after sustained pressure.
Ten minutes after that, Springbok World Cup-winning centre
Damian de Allende came off the bench to score, which made the final 15 minutes
nervy stuff for the hosts.
Things got even tenser when substitute hooker Bismarck du
Plessis was red-carded for a dangerous clean-cum-lift that saw Kendellen land
headfirst on the ground.
When O’Donoghue finally got his try by charging over the try
line with seven minutes left, Loftus fell deathly silent as the Bulls held onto
a five-point lead with just over five minutes to go.
But the Bulls held on with some rugged defending.
Scorers
Bulls – (26) 29
Tries: Madosh Tambwe, Walt Steenkamp
Conversions: Chris Smith (2)
Penalties: Chris Smith (5)
Munster – (3) 24
Tries: Alex Kendellen, Damian de Allende, Jack O’Donoghue
Conversions: Ben Healy (3)
Penalty: Ben Healy
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