Bulls centre Canan Moodie tries to get an offload away during their URC match against Cardiff.
Image: Backpagepix
The Bulls carved Cardiff into mince meat at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night, their 40-7 URC win a stunning riposte to their poor defeat to the Stormers the week before.
A rebound from the Bulls was expected, so too was a win, but the 33-point margin against the team placed fifth on the URC log was a welcome morale booster for Johan Ackermann’s men.
But it was an awful start for the home team — they were trying too hard and forced an attack out wide that was not on, with the result that the ball was spilled and Cardiff centre Harri Millard picked up and ran to the posts for a 7-0 lead on two minutes. That early score would be the Welshmen’s sole impact on the scoreboard.
Cardiff flanker Alun Lawrence was yellow-carded in the 7th minute to give the Bulls an opening. They took it in fine style. The penalty was kicked to the corner by Pollard, and captain Marcell Coetzee was propelled over from the maul. But the Bulls clumsily could not handle the restart, and a coach-killer of a penalty in front of the posts was somehow missed by Callum Sheedy.
Cardiff paid dearly for that miss. Pollard kicked magnificently deep into the Cardiff 22. The Bulls won a penalty at a ruck, the ball went precisely into the corner, and this time it was hooker Johan Grobbelaar who scored from the maul. Pollard missed the conversion for a 12-7 lead.
The Bulls were disallowed a try by Cobus Wiese when Embrose Papier — having made the try with a daring break — ran toward a would-be tackler of Wiese. It was silly because Wiese would have scored anyway. They made up for it when Kurt-Lee Arendse cut through the defence and passed to David Kriel for the try.
There was a moment of magic from Arendse when he received an aerial bomb that wasn’t precise, and it gave him the milliseconds to step the approaching Cardiff players and put Papier away for a lovely try. The Bulls were on fire when Pollard broke clean through from his own 22, Canan Moodie made serious mileage, and then a loose ball was kicked out wide by Nizaam Carr for Elrigh Louw to catch and beat the fullback.
The half-time score of 33-7 was valiantly held by Cardiff until just before the three-quarter mark, when a dominant Bulls scrum gave Ruan Vermaak the space and momentum to crash over. 40-7.
Scorers
Bulls — Tries: Marcell Coetzee, Johan Grobbelaar, David Kriel, Embrose Papier, Elrigh Louw, Ruan Vermaak. Conversions: Handre Pollard (5).
Cardiff — Try: Harri Millard. Conversions: Callum Sheedy