Bulls maul hapless Force
Outscoring the home team by five tries to two – the Force's last try a consolation score after the full-time hooter – the Bulls joined the Stormers on 28 points, with the Stormers 15-plus points differential just keeping them ahead of the Bulls.
The men from Pretoria dominated every aspect of the game, without ever getting out of third gear, against a Force team that looked like a rag-tag bunch of amateurs thrown together in the week before the match.
The visitors made it six wins from eight matches, with one draw, after pulling away in the second half against the Force.
The Force have won just one match from nine outings and are well out of contention as pressure mounts on coach Michael Foley.
The game was in the balance when the Bulls led 18-13 at the half-time break, with the South Africans running in the first two tries of the game – through Hanro Liebenberg and Jan Serfontein in the opening 20 minutes.
The Force struck back through skipper Matt Hodgson in the 26th minute.
However, the Bulls put the margin beyond a converted try after the resumption, with a penalty to Francois Brummer in the 49th minute.
They then broke the game open with three tries in 15 minutes as the Force wilted and suddenly found themselves down 13-42.
A second try to Serfontein, as he broke through the defence in the 54th minute, gave the Bulls a commanding lead.
Five minutes later, skipper Adriaan Strauss capitalised after a line-out win to score.
The Force were on their knees and Strauss finished them off by driving over the line for his second try in the 67th minute.
The home side scored a consolation try after the final hooter through Kyle Godwin.
Strauss was delighted with the performance ahead of a trip to Canberra to face the Brumbies.
"Very happy with the performance," he said.
"They stuck to the game plan until the end. The forwards and the backs did quite well tonight and worked hard for each other."
Force skipper Matt Hodgson felt his side were competitive for large parts of the match.
"We were in it for a lot of the game, but weren't tough enough," he said.
"They got some momentum, got back-to-back tries and they are hard to stop."
Man of the match: Matt Hodgson was, at times, a one-man wrecking ball – with little assistance from his teammates. Francois Brummer used his opportunity, Hanro Liebenberg and Arno Botha were efficient, while Marvin Orie and Rudolph Snyman made for a fine lock pairing on the day. Captain Adriaan Strauss also pitched in with a commanding performance. However, in a game where the Bulls' brutal physicality blew the Western Force away, the most effective player – and our man of the match – was Bulls centre Jan Serfontein.
The scorers:
For the Western Force:
Tries: Hodgson, Godwin
Cons: Prior 2
Pens: Prior 2
For the Bulls:
Tries: Liebenberg, Serfontein 2, Strauss 2
Cons: Brummer 4
Pens: Brummer 3
Yellow card: Brynard Stander (Western Force, 53 – repeated infringements, illegally collapsing the maul)
Teams:
Western Force: 15 Dane Haylett-Petty, 14 Marcel Brache, 13 Ammon Matuauto, 12 Solomoni Rasolea, 11 Luke Morahan, 10 Ian Prior, 9 Alby Mathewson, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 Matt Hodgson (captain), 6 Angus Cottrell, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Sitiveni Mafi, 3 Tetera Faulkner, 2 Harry Scoble, 1 Francois van Wyk.
Replacements: 16 Chris Heiberg, 17 Anaru Rangi, 18 Guy Millar, 19 Ross Haylett-Petty, 20 Brynard Stander, 21 Ryan Louwrens, 22 Kyle Godwin, 23 Semisi Masirewa.
Bulls: 15 Sarel Marais, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Francois Brummer, 9 Piet van Zyl, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Arno Botha, 6 Lappies Labuschagne, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Rudolph Snyman, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Trevor Nyakane.
Replacements: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Lizo Gqoboka, 18 Werner Kruger, 19 Jannes Kirsten, 20 Roelof Smit, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Tian Schoeman, 23 Dries Swanepoel.
Referee: Jaco van Heerden (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Rohan Hoffman (Australia), Damien Mitchelmore (Australia)
TMO: Ian Smith (Australia)
