The Blue Bulls turned the corner and all but cemented their place in the semifinals of the Currie Cup with a comfortable 35-10 victory over Western Province at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
The hosts’ victory was made that much sweeter by the fact that they were able to also gain the bonus point as they breached the Western Province tryline four times.
Western Province only managed to score a solitary try, that by Gio Aplon in the 41st minute, but it was not enough to spur the visitors into a fightback after trailing 22-0 at half-time.
The Bulls began with gusto as they quickly found themselves within striking range in the opening minutes of the game, which finally led to Danwel Demas scoring in the corner in the third minute.
Bulls flyhalf Derick Hougaard extended his team’s lead in the 15th minute with a penalty before the Bulls took advantage of a Western Province team down by one man after David Hendricks was sent to the sin-bin for punching in the 22nd minute.
The Bulls made full use of their one-man advantage in the pack and drove over for Deon Stegmann to score a converted try in the 24th minute.
Two minutes before the half-time interval, the Bulls rubberstamped their dominance on proceedings with a try by JP Nel in the right-hand corner.
At the start of the second half, Aplon gave his team a glimmer of hope with his well-executed try followed by a penalty from Peter Grant.
With the visitors threatening to burgle victory, the Bulls sprung back into action and quickly stretched their lead through a Hougaard penalty and drop goal in the 55th and 60th minutes, respectively.
The Bulls collected their bonus point try when James van der Walt crashed over in the 76th minute to put the contest beyond doubt. — Sapa