Bulls bully Ulster into submission 

MATCH REPORT: The Bulls put on a dominating display as they thrashed Ulster in the United Rugby Championship by 47-21 at Loftus Versfeld.

The Bulls’ scrum showed their dominance as soon as the second minute of the match when they earned a penalty that got them an attacking lineout in Ulster territory.

The Bulls couldn’t score from it initially, as Sebastian de Klerk was tackled into touch under penalty advantage, but they opted to scrum from that advantage and got another free play which wasn’t needed as Arendse stepped his way through the Ulster defence to get the opening score in the fifth minute.

It took Ulster four minutes after Arendse’s try to get on the scoresheet as Aiden Morgan nailed a cross-kick from his own half to Jacob Stockdale who gathered the ball and chipped it over the head of De Klerk and regathered possession to score the try.

Doak converted to level matters within the first 10 minutes.

The Bulls struck back after Ulster lost the ball and quickly transitioned from defence to attack when Le Roux nailed a cross-kick of his own to Chamberlain who regathered possession and gave the ball back on the inside to David Kriel to restore the seven-point buffer after 15 minutes.

Ulster showed great fight but couldn’t round their opportunities off, with their handling errors proving costly as the Bulls gained easy metres through scrum penalties.

It was no surprise when the Bulls received a penalty for not rolling away and they opted for the scrum outside the Ulster 22-metre area in centre field.

Prop Corrie Barrett was given an early rest in the 31st minute for repeated scrum infringements as the Bulls earned yet another penalty.

The Bulls opted to go for the line-out five metres from Ulster’s line and they executed a perfect rolling maul that saw Johan Grobbelaar go over in the 34th minute for the Bulls’ third try of the afternoon, which Chamberlain converted.

Ulster had an attacking line-out five metres from the Bulls’ line after Wilco Louw was penalised for not rolling away and they earned another penalty soon after when Cobus Wiese was deemed to be offside.

Ulster opted to use the quick tap and attack from close quarters, but a knock-on by Aiden Morgan saw the half come to a close and the Bulls headed into the changeroom with a healthy lead at the break.

The Bulls continued their dominance almost immediately in the second half as Canan Moodie went over for the bonus-point try in the 42nd minute after getting the offload from David Kriel after sustained pressure on attack by the Bulls.

But Ulster got a penalty before time got called off for a blood injury to the head of Springbok Elrigh Louw . Ulster went for the attacking line-out but ended up knocking the ball on.

Ulster showed great attack at some stages but the Bulls’ defensive work was even better, with No.8 Cameron Hanekom earning a penalty at the breakdown.

The Bulls opted for the five-metre line-out and scored their fifth try of the afternoon courtesy of a rolling maul with Hanekom getting the ball down.

There were further tries for Boeta Chamberlain following an interception by Ruan Nortje to spark the counter-attack and Ulster hitting back through Ben Carson with 11 minutes of play left.

Ulster scored another try via Stewart Moore, which was sparked by Werner Kok who put Mike Lowrey into space to set it up.

The Bulls had the final say of the match when they went wide on attack off a scrum eight metres from Ulster’s line and Elrigh Louw barged over to put the seal on a dominant Bulls performance.

*To recap all the action CLICK HERE

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Scorers:

For the Bulls:
Tries: Arendse, Kriel, Grobbelaar, Moodie, Hanekom, Chamberlain, Louw
Cons: Chamberlain 3, Kriel 2, Johannes

For Ulster:
Tries: Stockdale, Carson, Moore
Cons: Doak, Humphreys 2

Yellow card: Corrie Barrett (Ulster: Repeated scrum infringements)

Teams:

Bulls: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Sebastian de Klerk, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 David Kriel, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Boeta Chamberlain, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Cameron Hanekom, 7 Elrigh Louw, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Ruan Nortje (captain), 4 Cobus Wiese, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Replacements: 16 Armand van der Merwe, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Francois Klopper, 19 Sintu Manjezi, 20 Celimpilo Gumede, 21 Keagan Johannes, 22 Stedman Gans, 23 Aphiwe Dyantyi.

Ulster: 15 Mike Lowry, 14 Werner Kok, 13 Stewart Moore, 12 Ben Carson, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Aidan Morgan, 9 Nathan Doak, 8 David McCann, 7 Sean Reffell, 6 James McNabney, 5 Charlie Irvine, 4 Iain Henderson (captain), 3 Corrie Barrett, 2 James McCormick, 1 Andrew Warwick.
Replacements: 16 Tadgh McElroy, 17 Eric O’Sullivan, 18 Tom O’Toole, 19 Alan O’Connor, 20 Nick Timoney, 21 Dave Shanahan, 22 James Humphreys, 23 Ben Moxham.

Referee: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Assistant referees: JD Jadezweni (South Africa), Dylan November (South Africa)
TMO: Ben Breakspear (Wales)