Cape Town — It wasn’t the most eye-pleasing display, but the Bulls eventually rolled up their sleeves and found some rhythm on attack to secure a 45-7 bonus-point victory over Zebre in Parma on Friday night.
The Pretoria side scored six tries on the night, and the five log points keep the Bulls in the playoff race in the United Rugby Championship after disappointing defeats to the Stormers and Sharks in Pretoria in recent weeks.
Coach Jake White would have been a worried man in the first half, though, as his team battled to get going at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi.
#ZEBvBUL FULL-TIME:
— Official Blue Bulls (@BlueBullsRugby) February 25, 2022
That's the end of the 80 minutes in Parma. The Italian job is done. ✅
The Vodacom Bulls have bagged an impressive 7-45 victory over Zebre Parma. Well done, boys!#TrueToTheBlue @Vodacom #URC @URCOfficial_RSA pic.twitter.com/JwSv3yVzU7
They didn’t get much joy from their driving mauls and committed a number of handling errors once again — something that has plagued their attack throughout the URC.
Marcell Coetzee and his teammates were unable to string any meaningful number of phases together, with the backs in particularly losing the ball in contact too easily.
Zebre, who were missing a number of Italian internationals in Six Nations duty, managed to hang in by disrupting the South Africans in defence and making the game as scrappy as possible.
Things went from bad to worse for the visitors when captain Coetzee was given a yellow card by referee Adam Jones for taking out a Zebre player in the air in the 23 rd minute, and it looked like it was turning into another Italian nightmare for the Bulls following their drubbing in the Rainbow Cup final against Benetton in Treviso last year.
Zebre took full advantage of the one-man advantage immediately as flyhalf Antonio Rizzi stepped past Madosh Tambwe to score after a solid lineout drive from the forwards to put the hosts 7-0 up.
But the Bulls were able to close the gap with a Chris Smith three-pointer, and the Bulls No 10 set up his team’s opening try with a superb touch-finder from a penalty right up to the Zebre five-metre line, with hooker Johan Grobbelaar scoring from the resultant lineout drive.
That touchdown seemed to spark the Bulls into life, and the backs finally came to the party as centre Lionel Mapoe cut through the defence, and then fullback Kurt-Lee Arendse put on some fancy footwork to put scrumhalf Embrose Papier over the line.
The Bulls pack slowly wore down the Zebre forwards, with their scrum becoming increasingly dominant, while loose forwards Coetzee, Arno Botha and Elrigh Louw winning their collisions on attack and defence.
Their hard work was rewarded in the 52nd minute following a series of pick-and-go carries, with No 6 Coetzee stretching over.
The final goal for White’s team was the four-try bonus point, and it duly arrived via Botha, who forced his way across the line after a number of bruising carries from his fellow forwards.
That fourth touchdown knocked the stuffing out of the Zebre fight, and Mapoe — who was arguably the best Bull on show — and Arendse added the icing to the cake with a couple of sparkling tries in the final quarter.
⚡️ 𝙆𝙪𝙧𝙩-𝙇𝙚𝙚 𝘼𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨𝙚 ⚡️
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) February 25, 2022
The winger turning the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi into his own dance floor after magic from Elrigh Louw in the offload 🕺
A certified Vodacom #URC 𝙘𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙘 from the Bulls as they thrash Zebre 45-7. pic.twitter.com/R9hzZIg5lW
Points-Scorers
Bulls 45 – Tries: Johan Grobbelaar, Embrose Papier, Marcell Coetzee, Arno Botha, Lionel Mapoe, Kurt-Lee Arendse. Conversions: Chris Smith (6). Penalty: Smith (1).
Zebre 7 – Try: Antonio Rizzi. Conversion: Rizzi (1).
IOL Sport