Clinical Bulls kill off Brumbies
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The Bulls have de-railed the Brumbies at the top of the Aussie conference dishing them their second loss in a row on tour.
The Bulls dominated the highveld clash as they ran in four tries to three with the boot of Jacques-Louis Potgieter keeping the men from Pretoria comfortably in front all game long.
The men from Pretoria's clinical performance truly overwhelmed the men from Canberra who were outmuscled in every aspect from the set plays to the kicking game and even the physical play.
The Brumbies are still in the race for Australia’s guaranteed finals berth. But their winless South African leg will come back to haunt them when play-off spots are up for grabs.
The Brumbies beat the Bulls in Pretoria last year to clinch a spot in the Super Rugby grand final.It was the first time the Bulls had lost a play-off match at their home ground and they were intent on revenge from the opening whistle.
In contrast, the Brumbies lacked precision and their inability to hold on to the ball haunted them all night.It took just eight minutes for the Bulls to capitalise.
Springboks great Victor Matfield went through a massive hole in the Brumbies' defensive line, throwing a dummy to fool Jesse Mogg and then offloading to Jan Serfontein for the first try of the match.
It got worse for the visitors, leaking penalties, dropping regulation possession and gifting the fired up Bulls early chances to score.
They charged out to a 17 point lead when the burst through the defensive line and flank Jono Ross charged over the top of Jesse Mogg for the second try of the game.
The Brumbies' defence was soft in the first 40 minutes and their attack tried to go wide before it went forward.
Put simply, it was a disaster half for the visitors and they could see their championship dream starting to slip with one of their worst halves of the season.
The half time break didn’t help settle things down. The Brumbies dropped the ball from the kick-off and were immediately under pressure.
The Bulls went on the attack and bombed an almost certain try, but they stretched their lead when Matt Toomua was sent to the sin bin for a controversial high tackle.
Toomua wrapped his arms around JJ Engelbrecht, but referee Craig Joubert deemed the shot was high and Toomua was given a yellow card.
To add salt to the gaping wound, Bulls wing Bjorn Basson then latched on to an intercept and raced 75 metres to score the Bulls’ third try of the game.
The Brumbies finally showed signs of life when Jesse Mogg almost scored from a chip and chase.
From the ensuing attacking scrum, Henry Speight stepped in at flyhalf and brushed through three defenders close to the line to get the Brumbies on the board.
The Brumbies were their own worst enemies. They failed to clean up from kick-offs, they didn’t put the ball out when they had a chance for an attacking lineout and their defence was horrible.
They struck again late following some superb individual skills from Pat McCabe. McCabe appeared to be going out, but flicked the ball around the corner into the field of play.
The loose ball hit a Bulls player and skipper Ben Mowen was on hand to dive on the scraps to score.
The Bulls hit back with a Paul Willemse try from a rolling maul and the Brumbies scored last with Tevita Kuridrani getting over the line in the 78th minute.
Man of the Match: Jan Serfontein looked to control the middle of the park, getting his hand on to anything he could. For the Brumbies Wallaby-in-waiting Henry Speight was devistating when he did find the ball in his hands by it was Victor Matfield who dominated the set plays and his dummy and offload to Jono Ross for his first try were sublime, and for that he deserves the award for simply rolling back the hands of time.
Scorers:
For the Bulls:
Tries: Serfontein, Ross 2, Basson
Cons: Potgieter 2 Pollard
Pens: Potgieter 6
For the Brumbies:
Tries: Speight, Mowen, Kuridrani
Con: Lealiifano
Pens: Lealiifano 2
Yellow Cards: Matt Toomua (Brumbies, 42 – High tackle) Josh Man-Rea (Brumbies, 75 – reprated infringements)
Teams:
Bulls: 15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Grant Hattingh, 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Jono Ross, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Flip van der Merwe (captain), 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Dean Greyling.
Replacements: 16 Mbongeni Mbonambi, 17 Morne Mellett, 18 Marcel van der Merwe, 19 Paul Willemse, 20 Jacques Engelbrecht, 21 Piet van Zyl, 22 Handrè Pollard, 23 Ulrich Beyers.
Brumbies: 15 Jesse Mogg, 14 Henry Speight, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Christian Lealiifano, 11 Robbie Coleman, 10 Matt Toomua, 9 Nic White, 8 Ben Mowen (captain), 7 Jarrad Butler, 6 Scott Fardy, 5 Sam Carter, 4 Leon Power, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Scott Sio.
Replacements: 16 Josh Mann-Rea, 17 Ruan Smith, 18 JP Smith, 19 Fotu Auelua, 20 Jordan Smiler, 21 Conrad Hoffmann, 22 Andrew Smith, 23 Pat McCabe.
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Cobus Wessels (South Africa)
TMO: Johan Greeff (South Africa)
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