The Vodacom Bulls made it back-to-back wins over the Emirates Lions as they beat them 21-13 in the return Vodacom United Rugby Championship fixture at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
The Bulls never got their bonus point though as the wet underfoot made the game scrappy and difficult. but it meant the Bulls moved up the URC ladder after a poor start to the season.
Three tries to one told the story of a tough game and was about right for the difference between the two sides.
With 110mm of rain fell overnight in the capital city, it was never going to be a game for the ages, but the Lions promised fire and brimstone as they talked the entire week about how poor their performance was last weekend when they lost 34-10 at home.
This time around it wasn’t as easy for the Bulls, but the gulf in talent between the two sides was reflected in the result, and the Lions missed Burger Odendaal in the midfield badly.
Still, while the Bulls got the result they wanted, they won’t be crowing too loudly as their play wasn’t good by their own standards and they will need to improve before facing the Sharks next weekend.
They did stop the rot a bit, and there were questions in the week as both the Currie Cup and URC teams lost at Loftus in a matter of weeks after a long unbeaten run. The Bulls will have buried those thoughts at least for now.
The Lions started off with fire in their bellies after their poor performance last weekend brought a host of changes to the starting line-up and they had the better of the early exchanges.
For a moment the Bulls looked out of it with a plethora of early mistakes that mirrored their poor first half against the Stormers, going 6-0 down to two Tiaan Swanepoel penalties.
But they slowly started to take control and once they started putting passes together, even though the Lions had fire, it was the home side who edged forward.
And when they got their chance, they fired it home, with captain Marcell Coetzee grabbing a try from a five-metre burst off a penalty to put them on the board and into the lead.
From there, even though they were on the receiving end for most of the half, the Bulls actually were getting stronger as the game went along.
They added a second try through a lineout maul to hooker Johan Grobbelaar to go into the break 14-6 up, which must have hit the Lions hard.
The second half saw both sides try to get dominance but scrappy play, coupled with a plethora of penalties, made the game hard on the eyes.
The only highlights were the strong carries that led to Kurt-Lee Arendse’s try, as the Bulls punched the ball up the middle before spreading it wide for an easy run-in for the fullback.
The Lions hit back near the end for a try by Ruben Schoeman, who had an excellent game, but it was never going to be enough to win at Loftus.
SCORERS
Vodacom Bulls - tries: Marcell Coetzee, Johan Grobbelaar, Kurt-Lee Arendse. Conversions: Morne Steyn (3).
Emirates Lions - try: Ruben Schoeman. Conversion: Tiaan Swanepoel. Penalties: Swanepoel (2)