Bulls bungle against Highlanders
themselves for letting go of a golden opportunity and make it four wins in a row and take a major step towards the play-offs.
It was the Highlanders who got off the blocks quickest with a fourth-minute try by All Black scrumhalf Aaron Smith, but they were soon under siege from relentless waves of attack from the hosts.
And that is where the problems for the home side began as they failed to capitalise with points on the scoreboard.
So dominant were the Bulls that their new look frontrow of Lizo Gqoboka, Adriaan Strauss and Trevor Nyakane were having a field day at scrum time and shunted valuable penalties from their overwhelming strength in the set-piece.
Gqoboka, who got his first start of the season after the six-week suspension to Pierre Schoeman, was not only strong in the scrum, but just as effective with ball in hand and made a lasting impression that will even have Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus smiling.
It came as no surprise that the Bulls outscored their opposition by four tries to two with Jesse Kriel’s 76th-minute try a thing of beauty and desperation and also what the few thousand specators who had gathered at Loftus assumed would be the winning score.
But the Bulls had underestimated just how desperate the Highlanders were to get their second consecutive victory in the capital in as many years.
When the opportunity again presented itself with the Bulls trusted defence a step or two slower in finding themselves offside, it was All Black flyhalf Sopoaga who stepped up to calmly slot over the winning kick to seal a flawless kicking display and hand his team a precious victory, which was worthy of the celebrations after the final hooter.
THE Lions paid a heavy price for arguably their worst 40 minutes in years when they crashed to the lowly Reds 22-27 in a Super Rugby match in Brisbane yesterday, reports Jacques van der Westhuizen.
Swys de Bruin’s men – who had whipped the Waratahs 29-0 the week before – were 24-0 down at half-time after giving away four soft tries, before a fightback in the second half almost got the tourists across the line.