Africa-Press – South-Africa. It was less than the dynamic kind of Pedrie Wannenburg tribute the Bulls had hoped for, but they warmed enough to their task to repel Benetton 46-29 in a United Rugby Championship encounter at Loftus on Saturday.
As it happened |
URC – Bulls v Benetton
“A difficult day … but hopefully we can honour (the late loose forward icon, killed in a US car accident) with a good performance,” captain Marcell Coetzee had said on television ahead of the kick-off in sunny Pretoria.
Truth be told, there were lengthy periods – they trailed at the interval – when the Bulls looked anything but a compelling force for the looming quarter-finals.
But they nevertheless took a crucial step toward the last eight with this full-house triumph, by six tries to two and featuring a much more clinical and intense second half from the hosts.
It boosted them to 48 points and – even if perhaps temporarily in the round – seventh on the overall standings with two games to go (Glasgow at the same venue on Friday, then away to Ospreys).
The outcome also amounted to sweet enough revenge for the 35-8 Rainbow Cup final humbling from the same foes in Treviso last June.
Benetton got their tails up in the sixth minute when Bulls centre Lionel Mapoe was pinged for offside by referee Mike Adamson and the visitors’ fullback Rhyno Smith made no mistake off the tee.
The variety to their play was impressive – industrial mauling combined with slick hand-to-hand play and a willingness to move the ball from deep – and the Italians only needed another five minutes to nail the first try.
A ball went loose on the Bulls’ quarter after Madosh Tambwe came within a whisker of effecting an intercept; alert centre Tommaso Menoncello hacked it through with the home defence out of structure and gleefully applied the finishing touches himself.
Smith’s conversion made it 10-0, with the Bulls looking more than a little shell-shocked and bereft of ideas … not helped by being taken to the cleaners at the breakdown whenever they got reasonably close to the try-line through concerted but often too predictable carries by once-off runners.
Benetton continued to look threatening whenever they got close to or into the Bulls’ quarter and the Loftus faithful only became more subdued as unfailing Smith goaled another penalty to stretch the advantage to 13-0 – with the first quarter of the match not yet complete.
The next score badly needed to be theirs for the Bulls: and they woke sufficiently from their relative torpor to put flanker Cyle Brink over the chalk after smart lead-up driving and offloading from each of hooker Johan Grobbelaar and lock Ruan Nortje (the lanky No 5 ever-prominent in open play).
Pivot Chris Smith could not convert (5-13) and soon afterwards they lost veteran Cornal Hendricks to a head injury inspection, meaning the introduction of Stedman Gans off the splinters.
The flyhalf then appeared to lose his footing inconveniently on the slippery surface as he tried to bang over a penalty from the halfway line … leaving a still-worrying eight-point deficit.
His deadeye namesake off the Benetton tee, however, was again clinical with a penalty (5-16) at the other end of the park.
In a crucial fillip just before the break, the Bulls opted to kick for the corner from a penalty: a series of pick-and-goes off the resultant lineout banked led to an attractive score.
With the ball eventually given some air, Smith deftly flung a long, accurate pass to flying fullback Kurt-Lee Arendse wide on the left and he got over the line with effortless ease.
The conversion by Smith meant the Bulls had clawed their way right back into the game mentally as the teams went to the tunnel at 16-12 to Benetton, a deserved state of affairs.
Penalties by each of the Smiths within the first seven minutes of the second period made no material difference (19-15) to the match situation.
Then, finally, the Bulls hit the front: Benetton were getting a bit too cute and audacious with some of their running play and a passing gremlin in a move saw the alert Arendse pounce and streak away from behind halfway – nobody had a prayer of catching him – for a try converted by Chris Smith (22-19).
More acceptable levels of continuity were beginning to characterise the home team’s performance and the bonus-point try came just ahead of the hour-mark.
After a tap penalty taken near the Benetton line, in which the earthy, always direct Elrigh Louw made first yards, skipper Coetzee determinedly reached his right hand over the whitewash for what would be a seven-pointer (29-19).
While the Italians never threw in the towel to any marked extent and the scoreboard continued to show activity in each column, they were hampered for much of the last quarter by a rash of injuries and a red card that reduced them to an out-of-puff 13 players by the finish.
The Bulls exploited that advantage with further tries by Canan Moodie – his thrillingly triggered by the livewire Arendse from extremely deep – and substitute front-ranker Simphiwe Matanzima seconds before the siren.
Scorers:
Bulls (12) 46
Tries: Kurt-Lee Arendse (2), Cyle Brink, Marcell Coetzee, Canan Moodie, Simphiwe Matanzima.
Conversions: Chris Smith (3), Morne Steyn (2)
Penalties: Chris Smith (2)
Benetton (16) 29
Tries: Tommaso Menoncello (2)
Conversions: Rhyno Smith (2)
Penalties: Rhyno Smith (5)
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