Gunners grind out win as Bulls are denied late try
EDINBURGH 17 BULLS 10
They rode their luck at the end, but Edinburgh did just enough to pick up their second win of this United Rugby Championship campaign.
It wasn’t a classic match by any stretch of the imagination, but the endeavour of both teams ensured that the 6,000-strong crowd at the DAM Health Stadium left entertained.
After a scrappy first five minutes, Edinburgh suddenly clicked into gear with a halfdozen slick phases.
Play swept from the left to the right touchline, and then back again, before Damien Hoyland sent a well-weighted grubber into the in-goal area for full-back Henry Immelman to race on to and score.
Edinburgh’s line-out was creaking, which didn’t help the hosts in their quest to take a stranglehold of the match.
And a holding-on penalty against Stuart McInally allowed Bulls stand-off Chris Smith to narrow the gap to two points.
The game burst into life again around the 24-minute mark, sparked by a Grant Gilchrist charge-down, which had Bulls scrambling behind their own line.
But the visitors managed to open up an exit route with a Smith cross-field kick which reached Kurt-Lee Arendse on the left touchline, with the winger scuttling to safety past a despairing Darcy Graham tackle.
Bulls indiscipline allowed Jaco van der Walt to slot three penalties in quick succession, which made it 14-3 at the break.
But there was a setback for the hosts when van der Walt picked up a painful-looking shoulder injury whilst making a tackle during the last play of the first half and had to be replaced by James Johnstone, with James Lang moving in from centre to stand-off.
To their credit, Edinburgh took it in their stride, and twice had Bulls in bother early in that second period, first through a searching kick from Mark Bennett, and then through a scything break from James Johnstone.
Edinburgh missed out on an opportunity to stretch their lead when Lang hit the post following a scrum penalty awarded just after WP Nel had come on at tighthead prop.
Then, with 10 minutes to go, Bulls found a way into Edinburgh territory and, after a series of close-range drives, visiting captain Marcell Coetzee muscled his way over
Morne Steyn’s conversion made it 17-10, which was just a bit too close for comfort for the hosts, but they showed good composure to get back in the strike zone then earn a ruck penalty.
With Lang now off injured, Bennett stepped forward to take the shot at goal, and he made no mistake.
But there was still eight minutes to go – plenty time for some late drama when Bulls wing Madosh Tambwe was put in space on the left and he brushed off tackles from Hoyland and Graham on his way to the line.
It looked like Morne Steyn would have the chance to square it with a touchline conversion, but referee Ben Whitehose decided to review the try on the big screen, and decided there had been a double-movement.
It really was a call that could have gone either way, and who would have bet against the great Springbok nailing the points to square it?