The Blue Bulls stacked up 58 points in an awesome display of rugby when they defeated an outclassed Puma side 58-14 in their Absa Currie Cup match on Saturday.
The Bulls dominated all phases of play and scored tries through the forwards, the backs, via interplay between the two and on the counter attack. On this showing, it is hard to see how they will lose their crown.
Derick Hougaard opened the score with a long-range penalty in the first minute before a storming run by Bakkies Botha extended the Bulls lead. The big lock brushed aside defenders in a 30m run to the line.
Hougaard missed the conversion from the touch line but kicked another penalty after 11 minutes to put the Bulls up 11-0.
The Pumas, playing with a strong wind at their backs, had a chance to pull things back with a penalty, but fullback Jeandre Fourie missed an easy one.
Battling to get decent line-out ball and battling in the scrums, the Pumas eventually found some rhythm when Jacques Botes scored a great try after 30 minutes of play. He broke from the base of a scrum and after good interplay with Ashieq Wise exploited poor blind-side defence from the Bulls. Fourie converted.
The Bulls were dominating at this stage but had little to show for it. A typical Richard Bands try shortly before the break, converted by Hougaard, gave the Bulls more credit for their first-half effort and an 18-7 lead. A yellow card to Skipper Badenhorst a minute later did not help the Pumas either.
Just after the break, Fourie du Preez took a quick penalty tap and ran 50m to score and put the Bulls 23-7 up. From then on it was one-way traffic as the Bulls went on the rampage.
Midfielder Ettienne Botha scored three tries in the mayhem that followed.
Despite the slaughter, there was a nice ending to the game when younger brother Callie Wannenburg brushed aside his brother, Pedrie, to score his side’s second try. — Sapa