SCARLETS HIT BY BULLS MAULING
THE Scarlets suffered a United Rugby Championship thrashing in Pretoria as the Bulls ran in nine tries for a onesided victory.
Hooker Johannes Grobbelaar and No. 8 Marcell Coetzee crossed twice apiece in mostly one-way traffic, with Sione Kalamafoni and Rob Evans replying late in either half.
The depleted visitors could not match Bulls’ power and pace at altitude.
The Bulls climbed to sixth in the table while the Scarlets have four wins from 11 in a stop-start campaign.
The home side ran in first-half tries from Canan Moodie, ex-Ulster player Coetzee, Cyle Brink, Grobbelaar and Elrigh Louw for a 31-7 interval lead, with Ruan Nortje, Grobbelaar, Coetzee and Rob Hunt turning the screw in the second period.
Chris Smith converted five of the tries and Morne Steyn one.
Dwayne Peel’s side, beaten 37-20 by the Sharks seven days earlier, endured a difficult return to South Africa after their previous attempt to play the fixtures in November and December saw them trapped out there by a Covid-19 outbreak.
But the Bulls showed no ill-effects from playing three games in seven days, striking after just 80 seconds as Louw’s burst from an attacking scrum put winger Moodie over.
Full-back Kurt-Lee Arendse had a spectacular effort ruled out for a forward pass, but the tourists’ relief was short-lived.
They were being given the runaround by their hosts and a wonderful exchange of passes between KurtLee Arendse, Madosh Tambwe and Cornal Hendricks, followed by a Chris Smith cross-kick, put the Bulls deep in Scarlets territory, with Coetzee eventually touching down.
Scarlets flanker Aaron Shingler was forced off with a knee injury after just 12 minutes, and the one-sided nature of the contest continued with flanker Brink going over following a driving maul.
If there was any crumb of consolation for the visitors, it was that Smith – who ultimately contributed 10 points to the Bulls’ cause – was not taking advantage from the tee, converting one of the opening three tries.
But the fly-half could hardly have asked for an easier kick after Grobbelaar wrapped up the bonus point in the 25th minute by powering over next to the posts.
That made it 24-0 with the bonus point already in the bag.
The Bulls’ forward power continued to show as Louw powered over on the half-hour mark, before the visitors finally managed an attack with Ryan Conbeer halted just short and replacement Kalamafoni bursting over for Patchell to convert.
Hopes of matching Munster’s valiant comeback against the Bulls the previous week were hit in the first minute of the second period, as fullback Ioan Nicholas was sin-binned for a clumsy aerial challenge on Tambwe.
The Bulls stepped up the entertainment levels even further as giant lock Nortje pulled off a remarkable interception dash from halfway as he picked off a Dane Blacker pass, before a brilliant team try from deep was finished off by Grobbelaar.
The soft surface cut up and both teams used replacements early, but late efforts from Coetzee and Hunt allowed the Bulls to finish with a flourish before Evans barged over in the final move on his comeback.
The match provided a powerful reminder of the likely title challenge from the Southern Hemisphere now that South African sides are able to stage home games.