Bulls scrap for a win on foreign soil — at last!
THE Bulls claimed their first Super Rugby match outside of South Africa in more than three years yesterday when they held off tournament newcomers the Sunwolves 30-27 at Singapore’s National Stadium.
The new Japanese franchise came agonisingly close to registering a first win since joining the expanded competition this season, scoring three spectacular tries against the three-time tournament champions from South Africa be- fore running out of time and settling for a second bonus point in four matches.
What the Sunwolves lack in bigmatch experience they make up for with enthusiasm, adopting a spontaneous approach to the game both with the ball in hand and with their kicking.
They caught the Bulls by surprise to score the opening try after less than two minutes when the South Africans failed to clean up an astute chip-kick from Riaan Viljoen and openside flanker Andrew Durutalo crashed over.
Samoan flyhalf Tusi Pisi duly converted and added a penalty shortly after but the Sunwolves spent the rest of the first half defending after struggling at the set pieces and with their discipline, giving away 10 penalties in the opening 40 minutes and losing Tomas Leonardi for 10 minutes for a cynical penalty.
Flyhalf Tiaan Schoeman, one of four changes to the Bulls team that drew with the Sharks last week, booted three penalties to cut the margin to a point before the South Africans took advantage of their one-man advantage and dominance of the lineouts when Adriaan Strauss scored off a driving maul.
The Bulls stretched their lead to 23-10 seven minutes into the second half when they scored another try off the lineout, through Roelof Smit, but just when it looked like they might run away with the match, the Sunwolves hit back.
Pisi landed a long-range penalty then helped set up a spectacular try that began inside the Sunwolves half and ended with winger Akhito Yamada bulldozing his way past Warrick Gelant to score at the other end.
Pisi converted from out wide to get the Sunwolves within three then Viljoen struck the upright with a 55metre penalty attempt before the Bulls regained control with a contentious try to Jamba Ulengo, who was ruled to have grounded the ball into the post pads after the play as referred to the video official.
Needing a last-minute try to salvage a bonus point, the Sunwolves were rewarded for their perseverance when replacement Yuki Yamtomi darted through a giant hole in the South African lineout to score off the final play of the game.