Leading 29-17 at half-time, the Blue Bulls romped to a 58-22 victory over spirited Griquas in an Absa Currie Cup fixture played at Absa Park, Kimberley, on Friday afternoon.
The Bulls ran in eight tries to Griquas’ three
Playing with the wind at their backs in the first half, Gareth Krause’s Griquas team gave a good accounts of themselves with the power-packed Bulls line-up finding themselves trailing 7-0 after six minutes and 10-7 midway through the first-half.
But once Victor Matfield’s talented team began to find their rhythm, their was really only one team going to emerge with the spoils of victory and it was not Griquas — this in spite of all their very determined efforts.
The writing was on the wall as early as the 39th minute when Bulls hooker and man-of-the-match Derick Kuun scored his second try and his team’s bonus-point-earning fourth try to open up a 12-point lead at the changeover.
Kuun’s third five-pointer in the opening minute of the second half proved decisive, and though nippy Griqua scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius then scored his team’s third try following an excellent break by skipper Gareth Krause — to make it 36-22 to the Bulls — that was as near as they got to upsetting the pre-match favourites.
Though the visitors added a further seven points on the hour, it was only in the final 10 minutes that the floodgates really opened with the Bulls running in a further three tries — two of which were converted by replacement flyhalf Burton Francis. — Sapa