Bulls exact their revenge on Jaguares

● The Jaguares chose the worst possible time to end their seven-match winning streak when they succumbed to the Bulls.

Had the Jaguares won, they would have topped the South African conference ahead of Saturday’s final round of league matches.

Revenge was taken for the 54-24 battering the Bulls received on May 19.

The Jaguares showed they meant business by taking a 19-0 lead in 19 minutes but somehow they allowed the Bulls an undeserved half-time lead.

There was a serious dereliction of defensive duty as early as the third minute when flyhalf Nicolas Sanchez dotted down.

The initial tackle was missed by lock Ruben van Heerden and the cover defence simply didn’t have the gas and conviction to make the necessary try-saving tackle.

Jaguares captain Pablo Matera waltzed over for the second try two minutes later as the Bulls abdicated their tackling responsibilities. What was frightening was that the Bulls weren’t falling off tackles, but seemingly couldn’t keep up with the early tempo set by the Jaguares. It became even messier when Gonzalo Bertranou crossed the line in the 19th minute.

The crowd did well to brave the freezing conditions to support their under-performing team but the shambolic opening quarter did their hard-earned rands no justice.

The Jaguares though are prone to overelaboration and this worked into the Bulls' favour. They scored their first try in the 22nd minute through Johnny Kotze, who was the recipient of excellent work down the righthand flank by Handre Pollard and Warrick Gelant. As the first half descended into a litany of errors, the Bulls built a good head of steam and scored a good 35th-minute try through scrumhalf Embrose Papier.

The second-last pass from Gelant to Hanro Liebenberg looked suspiciously forward but the match officials saw nothing wrong with the offload.

Jesse Kriel then intercepted a pass in the Jaguares 22 and somehow the Bulls were in the lead while the Jaguares had done all the spadework.

The Bulls extended their lead to five points through a 43rd-minute penalty but Bertranou completed his brace two minutes later when the Bulls defence fell asleep.

The hosts got back into stride through a 52nd-minute Jamba Ulengo try created by a routine Pollard line break.

The Bulls finally gained ascendancy when Marco van Staden rumbled over from close range after the Bulls had made a dog’s breakfast of a lineout.