Cape Town - Try as they might, the Stormers were just too frantic and inaccurate as the Bulls showed the greater composure to pull off a vital 17-13 Super Rugby victory at Loftus on Saturday night.
The Bulls held on to their unbeaten home record and go level with the Stormers on 32 points in Africa Conference 1 with just four rounds left before the playoffs, with the Pretoria side ahead due to having seven wins compared to the six of the Cape team.
The bigger Bulls pack were just stronger, meaner and more relentless on attack and defence and overwhelmed the Stormers unit in the scrums, lineouts and general collisions.
The likes of young guns such as Jannes Kirsten, RG Snyman, Jason Jenkins and Arno Botha, coupled with more experienced hands like captain Adriaan Strauss and Marcel van der Merwe, took the game to the Cape visitors with a highly physical approach.
They knocked back Stormers runners such as Schalk Burger, Nizaam Carr, Siya Kolisi and much-vaunted lock pair Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit using a “gang-tackle” method of two opponents on one ball-carrier.
The Bulls forwards also disrupted the Stormers’ set-pieces all night long, and this ensured that the backs seldom got front-foot ball with which to play.
Loosehead prop Oli Kebble experienced a torrid evening against Springbok tighthead Van der Merwe, with New Zealand referee Ben O’Keeffe penalising the Stormers No 1 heavily.
The Bulls loose trio of Botha, Kirsten and Lappies Labuschagne overshadowed their more illustrious opponents Burger, Kolisi and Carr, with Kirsten voted as the Man of the Match.
Nollis Marais’ determined outfit also won the breakdown battle, but when the Stormers did get the ball to their backs, they lacked variety on attack. Apart from the odd chip off the outside of his boot, flyhalf Jean-Luc du Plessis didn’t mix things up often enough and he didn’t utilise the space behind an on-rushing Bulls defence.
The likes of Burger, Damian de Allende and Du Toit bashed it up the middle – with De Allende sometimes guilty of not passing to a teammate in a better position – but the ball hardly found its way to wings Leolin Zas and Kobus van Wyk, while fullback Cheslin Kolbe wasn’t really brought into the game with ball-in-hand.
Scrumhalf Nic Groom tried to drive the Bulls back on the odd occasion, but his execution wasn’t always on point, while his opposite number Piet van Zyl showed greater initiative in that regard. Groom and a few others were also guilty of taking tap penalties when a better option would’ve been a shot at goal.
And it was Van Zyl who broke the penalties sequence in the second half when the Bulls won the ball at the breakdown after Kolbe caught a high ball, and Bulls centre Jan Serfontein chipped the ball into the Stormers 22.
The awkwardly bouncing ball fell to SP Marais, who found Van Zyl on his inside and the No 9 went over.
Brummer added a third penalty in the 52nd minute, but Du Plessis missed his attempt four minutes later, which kept the Bulls eight points ahead.
Robbie Fleck’s team eventually put a few phases together without losing the ball in contact, and with 12 minutes to go, De Allende bounded through a gap to score under the posts.
It was a one-point game at 14-13 to the Bulls, but replacement flyhalf Tian Schoeman bundled over a cool drop goal with five minutes to go.
Van Zyl almost scored a second following a Jamba Ulengo chip-ahead, but lost the ball short of the line, and the Stormers launched a last-gasp counter-attack from their own 22.
The move looked promising until De Allende knock-on at the 10m line, and Scarra Ntubeni gave away a free kick for hooking too early at the resultant scrum, which the Bulls kicked into touch.
POINTS-SCORERS
Bulls – Try: Piet van Zyl. Penalties: Francois Brummer (3). Drop Goal: Tian Schoeman.
Stormers – Try: Damian de Allende. Conversion: Jean-Luc du Plessis (1). Penalties: Du Plessis (2).
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