The Bulls' Elrigh Louw goes in the charge in the United Rugby Championship quarter-final against Munster.
Image: Backpagepix
The Bulls ran riot at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday afternoon to crush Munster 45-14 and book a place in a United Rugby Championship semi-final in Glasgow, where the Warriors await.
The Bulls are a side peaking at the right time — they have won 10 of their last 11 games — and their balance between forward power and tidy backline play was a joy to behold. They scored six splendid tries to quell a Munster side that fought hard but was outmuscled and outplayed.
The first scrum saw Munster accelerate backwards. Shortly after, a neat backline movement that should have culminated in a try was halted because of a clumsy forward pass by Canan Moodie. The upshot was that there was a scrum, and once more Munster shot backward. This time the Bulls capitalised, with Embrose Papier finishing well.
The opening salvo from the Bulls was relentless — the all-out attack soon had Willie le Roux hit a gap out wide, and when Kurt-Lee Arendse cut inside from his wing to take an inside pass, there could be only one result. In the same passage of play, there was a further blow for Munster when influential lock Tom Ahern took a knock to the head and went off for an assessment.
At 14-0 after just 10 minutes, it was a dream start for the home team.
In the set scrums, Francois Klopper — a late replacement for the ill Wilco Louw — annihilated Munster loosehead Jeremy Loughman, while on the other side of the scrum, Gerhard Steenkamp inflicted a similar fate on Michael Ala’alatoa.
But the men in red know nothing of white flags. They stormed back, and after a series of rucks in the Bulls’ 22, flank Jack O’Donoghue burrowed over for the score to mark the end of the first quarter.
Handré Pollard pushed the score out to 17-7 with a well-taken penalty, but again Munster came steaming back, with centre Alex Nankivell finishing off a long siege.
From the restart, Arendse’s excellent chase put the receiver under pressure. A penalty was conceded, the ball went to the corner, and with utter predictability, Johan Grobbelaar went over off the back of the maul.
Munster overcooked the restart and the Bulls took advantage, soon moving deep into the red 22. When a penalty was conceded, this time it was Cameron Hanekom who muscled over from the maul. That meant a halftime score of 31-14.
The brave Irishmen dominated the first 15 minutes of the second half, but they could not score, and their encampment in the Bulls’ 22 ended with a hammer blow — the electric Papier intercepted a pass near the tryline and scampered the length of the field to score under the crossbar.
The Bulls’ bench came on to up the intensity yet further, and slick interpassing between the forwards over 40 metres culminated in Le Roux flinging a long pass out to Stravino Jacobs, who sped to the corner flag.
Scorers
Bulls — Tries: Embrose Papier (2), Kurt-Lee Arendse, Johan Grobbelaar, Cameron Hanekom, Stravino Jacobs. Conversions: Handre Pollard (6). Penalty: Pollard.
Munster — Tries: Jack O’Donoghue, Alex Nankivell. Conversions: JJ Hanrahan (2)