The Vodacom Bulls survived several scares to win an entertaining 11-try shootout 42-33 in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship quarterfinal and book themselves a home semifinal at Loftus Versfeld next week.
The Bulls turned it on in the third quarter to take control of the game, but had some scary moments as a brave Edinburgh side kept coming at them, and almost made the game closer than it should have been.
Despite an average refereeing performance - Welshman Adam Jones won’t be applauded by either team for some inconsistent decision-making - the game was an entertaining showpiece, where the early kickoff almost brought the try-count to a dozen and gave the 20 000 crowd good value for their money.
The Bulls for their part were much like they have been the whole season - a potent mix of a little bit of magic, a little bit of flair and a number of really worrying soft moments that could cost them against a better side.
RELIEF AT FINAL WHISTLE
But given the history of clashes between these two sides, which has always been close, it wasn’t a surprise that Edinburgh would run them close. There was a sense of relief all around at the final whistle, and the Bulls will head into the last four knowing they were in a contest, with much to work on this coming week.
Their defence - especially from broken play - was poor and a number of times they scrambled to keep Edinburgh out, surviving on passion rather than anything else. But on the day it was enough, even though Edinburgh made a mockery of the altitude factor and certainly gave more than a good account of themselves.
The Bulls relied a lot, in their comeback, on the mercurial skills of Willie le Roux, who was front and centre in many of their tries, while Keagan Johannes - despite having an off day with the boot - was excellent on all other fronts and scored a try that could easily be among the tries of the season.
The forwards were good, and the scrum was better than it was reffed, but it would be unfair to say the Bulls dominated and Edinburgh’s pack - especially Sam Skinner and Jamie Ritchie - were excellent on the day.
SLOW START
Again in a game against this side the Bulls suffered a slow start - even though much of the talk in the week was about how they get excellent starts on their home turf - and it was only in the second half when they edged ahead on the scoreboard.
Until then they looked a shadow of their potential and were playing second fiddle to an Edinburgh side that scored tries that, on face value, looked rather soft.
Their start was blown away by a tough yellow card to winger Sebastian de Klerk, who jumped to try and charge down a Darcy Graham kick in the third minute, colliding with the Scottish winger as he returned to the ground.
While Graham made a meal of the incident, referee Jones thought it was worthy of a yellow card - even though many in the crowd thought it wasn’t even worth a penalty. To those who disagree, De Klerk was entitled to stand his ground and having jumped, where was he supposed to go?
That card was costly as the penalty resulted in two tries for the visitors - the first coming when the Bulls were stretched from the lineout and Harry Paterson found a gap.
Ross Thompson scored his first of two just before De Klerk returned to the field, and when the winger was back, it was 14-3 for the visitors and the Bulls had an uphill climb to climb.
HANEKOM STARTED THEIR COMEBACK
The Bulls tried hard to come back, and battered the Edinburgh line, finally finding a hole for Cameron Hanekom to burst through to score.
But no sooner had they caught their breath, a mistake from the kickoff saw them concede again, as a set piece move saw Thompson twist out of a tackle to score and put his side 21-8 up.
However, enter Le Roux and the confidence in the Bulls started to grow. Coupled with a bit of desperation, an Edinburgh lineout overthrow was turned into gold as the Bulls tapped it back, and Le Roux ran into an open hole with a perfect pass from Embrose Papier to make 20 metres and then put David Kriel away to score.
The Bulls almost added another when Papier dropped the ball with an open tryline, but they got themselves within three just before the break when a Le Roux flat pass - which was contested by Edinburgh’s entire team - found De Klerk on the wing, who chipped and collected and then handed it off to Harold Vorster, who dummied before surging in at the corner.
Given the half they had, the Bulls would have been happy to be in 21-18 behind at the break.
They turned it on early in the second half to take control of the game with an exceptional move after punching it up three times up the middle before the recycled ball found Le Roux, who threaded the perfect underhand pass to Moodie to run in and score.
CONFIDENCE GREW ONCE IN LEAD
Now in the lead, the confidence grew, with broken play delivering a lateral move that looked like it was going nowhere, before Johannes eyed a gap, took it and ran 40 metre upfield. But the beauty wasn’t just the move or the try, but the last sidestep that allowed him to flatfoot Wes Goosen to score a beauty of a try.
Ruan Nortje went over from close range and in the space of 10 minutes the Bulls had overturned the deficit and were very much in control at 39-21 up.
But then Edinburgh’s comeback started. First it was Ewan Ashman who went over after several phases - which cost JF van Heerden a yellow card.
The Bulls had grounds for a possible penalty try when Thompson deliberately knocked down a flying attack pass from Papier to stop what could have been a try. But instead, the Bulls took three points and Thompson joined Van Heerden on the bench with a yellow of his own.
Edinburgh weren’t done as Darcy Graham started an attack deep in his 22 from a poor kick by Le Roux, and after several hands had taken it upfield, Goosen finished in the opposite corner of the field.
Nine points adrift, Edinburgh attacked and the Bulls moved into survival mode, finding a way to close out the game under heaps of pressure.
The final minutes weren’t pretty for the home side but there was relief when the final whistle went. The Bulls were in the last four, and had survived.
They will now wait to see who they face next Saturday.
Scorers
Vodacom Bulls - tries: Cameron Hanekom, David Kriel, Harold Vorster, Canan Moodie, Keagan Johannes, Ruan Nortje. Conversions: Johannes (3). Penalties: Johannes (2).
Edinburgh - tries: Harry Paterson, Ross Thompson (2), Ewan Ashman, Wes Goosen. Conversions: Thompson (4)