Bulls breeze past Kings
Bulls will know more taxing engagements await them in the lead up to the play-offs, despite overcoming their so-called injury crisis to win this match with ease
THE Bulls again showed the way in dismantling the Southern Kings with a determined display here yesterday.
Appearing not in the least affected by what has been described as an injury crisis, the Bulls eased to victory to move to second place on the Super Rugby points table behind the Chiefs. They leapfrogged the Brumbies who have been relegated to third.
As was the case in their match earlier this season the Bulls put their foot down early. They never allowed the Kings to settle by applying the squeeze in the set pieces and dominating the collisions on the gainline.
Whenever players collided invariably the bloke in a black jersey took a step back. This phenomenon manifested itself in the scrum in the first half where Dean Greyling, despite the occasional slip, scrummed with determination, but the Kings’ gradually steadied. The Bulls regained the ascendancy in that facet around the hour mark.
Similar insecurities riddled the Kings’ lineout in which the Bulls’ Grant Hattingh made a nuisance of himself. The Kings will have much reason to lament their shortcomings in the air as their maul, on the few occasions they were able to launch, looked their most likely way through the Bulls defence.
Wimpie van der Walt and Jacques Engelbrecht were superb in that regard but with such a paucity of good lineout ball the Kings were made to look like paupers.
Matters were exacerbated for the Kings by their defence. They fell off too many tackles as the Bulls ran at the gainline with verve. The Kings were particularly prone to snipes around the fringes as the tries of Chiliboy Ralepelle and Francois Hougaard so glowingly illustrated.
With so much front-foot ball a heavy hitter like Jacques Potgieter was always going to be conspicuous but Ralepelle displayed similar alacrity when presented a few metres to build up some steam. Potgieter was named man of the match for his gainline busting runs.
At the back Morne Steyn, who was supposed to have only limited game time following a heavy work load with the Springboks, was thrust into the action as a 17th-minute replacement for the injured Louis Fouche. His neat distribution enabled the hard-running Jan Serfontein to thoroughly engage the Kings’ defence and despite making some line breaks the Bulls can find some more inventive ways to use the tyro. He was a crash-ball specialist yesterday but there is so much more to his skill set.
Serfontein yesterday was in the No 13 jersey which allowed Wynand Olivier to start his last game for the Bulls before
The Kings fell off too many tackles as the Bulls ran at the gainline with verve and continued to apply pressure
moving to France.
Olivier has delivered many stellar performances for the Bulls and when he left the field after 60 minutes yesterday, the muted response from the terraces was hardly a fitting tribute to a player who had just completed his 100th match for the franchise.
After he departed the Bulls continued to apply the pressure. Tries by Jacques Potgieter in the 62nd and Deon Stegmann in the 72nd minute further highlighted the drive with which the Bulls approached this contest.
The defeat confirms that the Kings will play the Lions in two promotion-relegation matches.