Bulls desperate to kick on
Bulls captain Victor Matfield said his side need to capitalise on the momentum of their victory over the Cheetahs to challenge for a play-off place.
The tense 26-21 victory was the Bulls' first win in five games, and Matfield said that they will have to be even better in the coming weeks if they are to sneak into the play-offs this year.
“We will take this now and hopefully get some momentum and some confidence going into the next game, we know it is going to be another huge game on Saturday,” Matfield said.
“We will need to be even better than tonight.”
The Pretoria side are in 10th place on the overall Super Rugby table on 24 points and next face a Stormers side playing with renewed vigour.
Bulls coach Frans Ludeke praised his charges for their patience after the visitors opened a 18-9 lead going into the half-time break.
The Cheetahs scored two tries in the opening 40 minutes of the match but the hosts added 17 second half points Ä through two converted tries and a penalty conversion to claim the victory.
“We had momentum, they got away with an intercept try and suddenly we were under pressureâ – we were patient,”Ludeke said.
“They had all the momentum and all the things going their way in the first half, we just fought our way back and when we had the lead I thought we really defended well and managed the game well.”
Ludeke attributed much of their success to a well-functioning maul which the Cheetahs were incapable of stopping.
“We squeezed them into turnovers, the maul was working well for us and we got the momentum every time we got penalties and we converted. We were unlucky not to score more tries,” Ludeke said.
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