Young Bulls showed 'character'

The Blue Bulls may have had to settle for a draw, but they have a solid base on which to build their Currie Cup campaign.

The Bulls held the defending champions, Western Province, to a 24-all draw in the opening round at Newlands on Saturday.

Province produced an adventurous first-half display which saw them score twice in the opening 20 minutes.

Their team struck up excellent cohesion, resulting in fine inter-play between backs and forwards and gave them a 14-6 lead at the break.

The Bulls, however, produced excellent passages of play in the second half, especially at the death when they denied the hosts a near-certain win.

New Bulls captain Jono Ross felt they have a good base to build on, despite not getting the win.

"Coming down [to Newlands] with a young side [against the defending champions] was always going to be a massive ask," Ross said.

"Before the game we asked for a big effort from each and every player and that is what we got.

"A draw is never a nice result for any team, but we will be happy with the performance we put out there, as well as the effort and the workrate.

"There is a lot to build on," he added.

The skipper said the new scrum engagement sequence appears to have favoured his team, who dominated the set pieces.

However, he warned against reading too much into it.

"We will obviously see going forward, but we put in a massive effort at the set pieces and it paid dividends," Ross said.

Asked about the second-half effort, which saw them trail 6-14 at half-time and 9-21 midway through the second half, the Bulls skipper said: "It shows the character of the young guys and the guys really put up their hands, they produced a massive effort.

"I can't ask for more than that and hopefully I we can build no that."