Bulls stutter but recover to down Lions

The Vodacom Bulls kept their unbeaten record at Loftus Versfeld under coach Jake White as they opened their Rainbow Cup SA campaign with a disjointed 22-9 win over the Emirates Lions on Saturday night.

The Bulls had no less than three disallowed tries, but were at times their own worst enemies as the scoreline flattered the visitors and was far from the spectacle that White had hoped for.

To the Lions' credit their defence was exceptional, even though they offered little on attack other than the individual talents of Vincent Tshituka and Wandisile Simelane.

And in the bigger context, while they were good at the breakdown, they will need more attacking arsenal if they are to trouble the big guns in Pro14 later on.

Still they harassed the Bulls well, with players such as MJ Pelser in particular doing a lot of hard work to disrupt the Bulls at the breakdown.

In fact, the visitors disrupted the home side’s game plan to such an extent that it took more than 60 minutes for the tide to turn in the Bulls' favour, when EW Viljoen was yellow carded for an intentional knock down.

Part of the problem was perhaps the pack picked by White, who wanted to see his team of “athletes” as he put it run the park against the Lions.

Without the normal bulk they struggled in the close encounters and kept the Lions in the game through a string of penalties and other infringements.

CRUCIAL TRY

It was noticeable when the senior players such as Lizo Gqoboka, Morne Steyn and Arno Botha took the field how the momentum shifted and a calmness came over the Bulls as they closed out the game with ease.

They did start like a house on fire when flyhalf Chris Smith shook off some ineffective tackles to score a great individual try in the opening minutes to put the Bulls ahead.

But despite the promises of a more open game, the Bulls descended into their shell, kicking much of their attacking ball away under pressure and allowing the Lions to build phases and with that pressure, which turned into penalties.

Fred Zeilinga added three penalties for the Sharks, while Smith kicked one for the Bulls as the scores were first 10-6 and then 10-9 early in the second half.

In between the Bulls had a try disallowed when a replay saw Embrose Papier knock the ball and then again in the second half when an obstruction was picked up from a lineout.

The third disallowed try came from a captain’s challenge, which saw a try overturned for a skew lineout throw under the experimental laws that came in with the competition.

The break finally came after Viljoen was dispatched for a deliberate knock down, and a man down, the Lions floundered on defence, with Gqoboka catching them at a ruck by picking up the ball and charging ahead, passing the ball to Zak Burger to score the crucial try.

Elrigh Louw scored on the final whistle to give the Bulls a bigger winning margin but considering it was three tries to zero, with three disallowed, the Lions will have a lot of work to do when they get back to Ellis Park on Monday.

Scorers

Vodacom Bulls - tries: Chris Smith, Zak Burger, Elrigh Louw. Conversions: Morne Steyn (2). Penalty: Smith.

Emirates Lions – penalties: Fred Zeilinga (3)