Cheetahs run the Bulls ragged
at Free State Stadium IT SHOULD not have been this close but the Cheetahs somehow found the resilience to register only their third Super Rugby win over the Bulls.
A rugby injustice of the highest order would have taken place if the Bulls pulled this one out of the fire.
The rugby gods decided to be kind to Franco Smith’s men after Rohan Janse van Rensburg broke their hearts last week. Their win was built on an explosive first-half showing the Bulls had no response to.
The buffer was enough to keep the Bulls at bay in an entertaining game where six of the seven tries were scored at one end of the field.
The half-time score didn’t do justice to the Cheetahs’ dominance. When they camped in the Bulls’ 22, the visitors battled to live with their tempo and physicality at the fringes.
Four first-half tries conceded by the Bulls were the end result of some shambolic defensive organisation despite their scrum dominance.
Teboho Mohoje, Clinton Swart and Justin Basson were the beneficiaries of the Bulls’ defensive generosity.
A high-octane game is aligned to a high penalty count when the skills set is imperfect, but the Cheetahs played a high stakes poker game between four lines that paid off handsomely.
It was clear the instruction was to take the game to the Bulls, especially in light of the abysmal first half Nollis Marais’ side had against the Stormers last week. The Bulls haven’t shaken off their slow start syndrome, unless it is a peculiar case of homesickness.
Their next home game is only on March 17 against the Sunwolves. They will have the bye week to find a remedy for their early game tardiness before it’s ruthlessly exposed by the New Zealand sides in April and May.
Handre Pollard’s boot kept the Bulls in the hunt but their impotency in the Cheetahs’ red zone left a lot to be desired. Jason Jenkins’s eighthminute try was the only example of their absent incisiveness. The rangy lock forward collected an excellent short pass from scrumhalf Rudy Paige after No 8 Hanro Liebenberg tapped quickly from a scrum free-kick.
When the visitors resorted to the pragmatic approach, Piet van Zyl crossed the line in the 66th minute.
Three minutes later, Jamba Ulengo crossed over in the corner and suddenly the Bulls looked like champions and the Cheetahs distinctly ordinary.
Fortunately for the hosts, the second wind died down as quickly as it came, with Travis Ismaiel’s 78th minute knock-on deep in his own half knocking the stuffing out of the men in blue.