It was scrappy and unconvincing to say the least, but the Blue Bulls scored an all important fourth try on their way to a 27-13 victory over a plucky Falcons side at Bosman Stadium on Friday night. The bonus point for the Bulls enables them to stay in touch with the log leaders in the Absa Currie Cup competition.
The Bulls have played in spurts all season and this victory was again a mix of the sublime and very ordinary play. They started off like a house on fire, with Johan Roets showing early intent by dotting down after just two minutes.
Derick Hougaard kicked the conversion and the Bulls looked set to put on a huge score. But although Roets maintained his fine form since returning from injury, there was not much coming from his teammates and they were only 15-13 ahead at the break.
The Falcons, playing a spoiling game at the breakdown, managed to disrupt the Bulls’ attacking momentum.
Referee Marius Jonker did penalise the home side by giving yellow cards to Zane Killian and Michael Vermaak, but the Bulls never found the extra gear to finish off their hosts.
The visitors looked laboured on attack and battled to get interplay between their forwards and backs going. Individually, Pierre Spies and Pedrie Wannenburg had their moments, but overall the Bulls loose trio could not provide the link between some hard driving by the likes of Hottie Louw, Gary Botha and the backs, where Marius Delport and Roets looked dangerous.
The Falcons played well within their abilities. Piet Krause was at his spoiling best and the halfback pairing of Sarel Pretorius and Louis Strydom had more impact that their counterparts in blue.
It was left to some patient Bulls play late in the second half to secure the bonus point. How much it will be worth later in the series remains to be seen, but they will need to be much better than this to compete with the likes of the Lions, Sharks, Western Province and the Cheetahs. — Sapa