Sunwolves beat Bulls ... again

SUPER RUGBY REPORT: The Sunwolves recorded historic back-to-back victories over the Pretoria-based Bulls, following on their 21-20 victory over the Bulls in Tokyo last year. This time the Sunwolves won 42-37, outscoring the Bulls by six tries to four in a match in which the lead changed hands four times.

That all sounds interesting and suggests an exciting affair. The truth is that its was a tedious match, that gathered excitement in the last ten minutes when the lead changed hands twice.

The Sunwolves certain deserved to win. They were more enthusiastic and more creative. More? The truth is that the Bulls were not enthusiastic and not creative. “More” in this case was not difficult. It is hard to equate this side with the Bulls of even a few years back, hard to see why anybody would want to play rugby like this and so aspire to become a Bull.

The match was played under a closed roof, which kept out wind, rain and sun. But it is summer in Singapore by the sea and the humidity was high, which may have affected the Bulls from the Highveld more than the men from islands in the Pacific. Say that, and you feel as if you are looking for feeble excuses.

Stoppages broke down the match. In the first half there were 38 stoppages in 40 minutes – penalties, line-outs and scrums. And there were, especially in the second half, long stoppages for injuries of some sort, mostly to Sunwolves.

The Bulls believed in kicking, and twice their kicking enabled tries for the Sunwolves to howls of delight from the stands.

The first try was just two minutes in the making. Embrose Papier kicked a box kick, as he did often. Gerhard van den Heever, the Sunwolves’ fullback, caught the ball and countered. Michael Little at inside centre broke strongly. Getting the ball a second time, he gave a perfect pass to Hayden Parker who scored in the left corner and then, on a day of splendid goal-kicking, he converted from touch. 7-0 after 3 minutes.

For the next try, Warrick Gelant kicked the ball out on the full from outside his 22. That gave the Sunwolves a line-out just inside the Bulls’ half. The Sunwolves did a bit of choreography in the line-out and hooker Jaba Bregvadze threw to No.8 Yopshitake Tukunaga, who had moved to the front of the line-out. Tukunaga gave back to Bregvadze who rumbled ahead and gave inside to scrumhalf Keisuke Uchida who skated off for the second try. 14-0 after 19 minutes.

Papier kicked again, Jesse Kriel chased. Van den Heever got the ball and kicked – into Kriel’s back. Kriel grabbed the ball and scored. Handré Pollard converted. 14-7 after 22 minutes.

Pollard kicked a diagonal into touch. Van den Heever fetched the ball inside his 22 and threw in quickly but to nobody. The ball was bouncing near the posts when Kriel, the most eager of the Bulls, got the bouncing ball and scored. 14-14 after 27 minutes.

A Pollard up-and-under set the Bulls on the attack, Britz was yellowcarded for collapsing a maul and the Bulls had two five-metre line-outs. Hooker Jaco Visagie got the ball over the line but the TMO decided that a knock-on had occurred.

The Bulls came back on attack, and, going right, Pollard dummied and then cut back past three defenders to score untouched under the posts and the Bulls took a 21-14 lead into the half-time break.

Pollard goaled a penalty early in the second half and gave his side a 10-point lead.

From a line-out just outside the Bulls’ 22, the Sunwolves went left. Parker gave an inside pass to Semisi Masirewa. The big wing broke and gave to Van den Heever who hared for the line and scored in the left corner. 24-21 after 46 minutes.

Britz was back when the Bulle restored their 10-point lead.

Pollard gave to Kriel who gave to Jamba Ulengo, who have back to Kriel and Kriel gave to prop Conraad van Vuuren who steamed over for a try, which he enjoyed. 31-21.

Papier kicked out on the full, and the Sunwolves had a line-out on the left, which Britz won. They went right where Little was strong and determined. They came back right and Britz had an overlap and smiling ran in for a try. 31-28 after 53 minutes.

The Sunwolves were trying to inject life and speed into the match, taking tap penalties whenever they could. But Pollard was next to score, a penalty goal. 34-28 after 59 minutes.

The wolf howls in the stadium sounded mournful.

The Bulls attacked and were at the Sunwolves’ 22 when Pollard knocked on into the arms of Britz, and the Sunwolves started running, believing that they could win. They ran down the right and then came left with a strong run by Jason Emery who gave to Masirewa who passed inside to Little who scored. The Sunwolves led 35-34 with 15 minutes to play.

As the Bulls attacked, Kriel latched onto a Pollard grubber and the Bulls were battering at the goal-line till substitute scrumhalf André Warner dummied and dived over. Somehow the TMO detected a knock-on and the ‘try’ was disallowed but the referee had been playing advantage and went back to the penalty. Pollard goaled. 37-35 to the Bills with 10 minutes to play.

With five minutes to play, the Sunwolves had a line-out. Britz won it and the Sunwolves went right Substitute flank Rahboni Warren Vosayako charged and was knocked to the ground. He was not held and it was no tackle and so he stood up and charged some 15 empty metres to the goalposts. 42-37.

The Sunwolves played keep-ball till time was up and the final whistle sounded to howls of delight.

Man of the Match: Michael Little, so strong and determined on both attack and defence.

The scorers:

For the Sunwolves:
Tries: Parker, Uchida, Van den Heever, Britz, Little, Warren
Cons: Parker 6

For the Bulls:
Tries: Kriel 2, Pollard, Van Vuuren
Cons: Pollard 4
Pens: Pollard 3

Yellow card: Willie Britz (Sunwolves, 37 – cynical foul, collapsing a maul)

* To see all the SUPER RUGBY results and standings, CLICK HERE!

You may want to listen to this:

https://soundcloud.com/rugby365/podcast-when-players-confronted-the-bok-coach

Teams:

Sunwolves: 15 Gerhard van den Heever, 14 Semisi Masirewa, 13 Jason Emery, 12 Michael Little, 11 Akihito Yamada, 10 Hayden Parker, 9 Keisuke Uchida, 8 Yoshitaka Tokunaga, 7 Shunsuke Nunomaki, 6 Willem Britz (captain), 5 Uwe Helu, 4 James Moore, 3 Takuma Asahara, 2 Jaba Bregvadze, 1 Craig Millar.
Replacements: 16 Yusuke Niwai, 17 Shintaro Ishihara, 18 Hencus van Wyk, 19 Grant Hattingh, 20 Rahboni Warren Vosayako, 21 Fumiaki Tanaka, 22 Rikiya Matsuda, 23 Ryoto Nakamura.

Bulls: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Jamba Ulengo, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Johnny Kotze, 11 Divan Rossouw, 10 Handre Pollard (captain), 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Jannes Kirsten, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Rudolph Snyman, 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Conraad van Vuuren, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Edgar Marutlulle, 17 Simphiwe Matanzima, 18 Morné Smith, 19 Thembelani Bholi, 20 Nic de Jager, 21 Andre Warner, 22 Manie Libbok, 23 Dries Swanepoel.

Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Shuhei Kubo (Japan), Tasuku Kawahara (Japan)
TMO: Minoru Fuji (Japan)