Pretoria - The Bulls scored six tries against Western Province and showed that their new approach of keeping ball-in-hand can pay dividends in the Currie Cup.
That was the message from captain Arno Botha after the Pretoria side ran up a 38-0 lead before winning 45-26 in the tournament opener at Loftus Versfeld on Friday evening.
The Bulls ran out up an early 21-0 lead and continued their onslaught in the second half with an impressive display of attacking rugby that was complemented by their physicality in the tight exchanges.
Province hit back in the last 15 minutes to score four tries to earn a bonus point, but it was nothing more than a consolation effort as the Bulls were dominant throughout. The Bulls were devastating when carrying the ball despite coming under pressure in the scrums and lineouts.
“We knew that WP would never stop coming at us. We just want to play with the ball, play the opportunities,” a smiling captain Arno Botha said in the post-match TV interview. “I think we can work on our set-piece a bit, but I think we did well. We've done better with our scrum compared to last year, but it is a work in progress in the scrums and lineouts.”
The man-of-the-match award went to industrious Bulls lock Marvin Orie, who had a high work-rate around the field and contributed strongly on attack and defence.
“It was a really hard game. Western Province made it tough for us, but we managed to get the win. I think the award is just the cherry on top, and it was a big team effort,” he said.
“We set goals for ourselves at the beginning of our pre-season, and we are working hard every day and hopefully we can come out victorious at the end of the competition.”
For Province coach John Dobson, it is back to the drawing board, and he will be relieved that his team have a bye next weekend, which will allow him to have a rectify the shortcomings. WP battled to find their rhythm in the first hour, and only once the Bulls had the game wrapped up did the Cape side run in a few tries.
“They got on to us quite quickly in the first half, and we struggled just to bounce back from that. We made too many errors and (didn't) look after our own breakdown,” captain Chris van Zyl said.
“It is sometimes more about getting the structures in place, and making sure we still believe in our system, which we do. I thought once we started settling down and coming into our structure, things started to gel nicely and we worked better. “(The) okes showed character (in the last quarter) and I'm really proud of the guys. But we are just utterly disappointed. We really came here with a goal to win, so we are bitterly disappointed.” - African News Agency (ANA)