South Africa’s Bulls broke a 12-season hoodoo by beating the ACT Brumbies 19-7 in their Super 14 match at Canberra Stadium on Saturday.
The Bulls registered their first win in the Australian capital since the old Super 12 began in 1996 to cement their place in the top four after five rounds.
Flyhalf Derick Hougaard scored 14 points in a superb display of kicking while number eight Pedrie Wannenburg scored a try to give the Bulls a commanding 19-0 lead at the break.
The Brumbies, the only team from outside New Zealand to win the southern hemisphere’s annual regional championship, threatened a comeback when centre Gene Fairbanks scored early in the second half and Julian Huxley converted.
But despite dominating possession and territory, the Brumbies were unable to score again as the Bulls resolutely defended waves of attacks.
”This is the first time we’ve won here, we can be very proud,” Bulls captain Victor Matfield said in a televised interview.
”We can take some confidence out of this. In the first half we played alright …. but we had our backs against the wall in the second.”
The Brumbies were missing several top players including Wallabies Stephen Larkham, Stirling Mortlock and Clyde Rathbone, but let themselves down with poor handling, coughing up possession 17 times.
”I think we lost the game tonight through the turnovers we gave to them,” skipper George Smith said.
Hougaard set the tone for the match when he slotted a drop goal in the second minute.
The 24-year-old added three more penalties before Wannenburg crashed over from a maul just before the break to give the South Africans the breathing space they needed to repel the Brumbies second half fightback. – Reuters