Ken Borland

The Bulls planted plenty of attacking seeds and the important ones bore fruit as they showed they remain one of the best sides in the United Rugby Championship at home, thumping Cardiff 45-9 at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night.

Cardiff were certainly more competitive than the scoreline suggests, but they lacked the same ability to convert chances in the 22, while the Bulls also deserve credit for a stout defensive effort.

But it was the Bulls attack that will be the focus as they scored six tries to stay fourth on the URC log. Not every pass stuck for the Bulls though, there were plenty of handling errors, but they won comfortably just through the sheer number of chances the combination of strong forward carries and a dashing, inventive backline creates.

The Bulls took a while to find their flow and Cardiff were leading 6-3 as the half-hour approached through two Jarrod Evans penalties. But when the home side finally managed to hang on to possession for several phases, fullback Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie combined superbly to send the wing over for the opening try. Their work in tandem was beautiful to watch right through the match.

Another Evans penalty meant the Bulls were only 10-9 ahead as halftime approached, but the home side made a crucial strike on the hooter as they won a scrum penalty, set the lineout and flyhalf Johan Goosen put Arendse over for the try.

The Bulls, leading 17-9 at the break, continued to gain great dividends from their combination of power and pace and flair in the second half.

Goosen split the defence and scored three minutes after halftime as the Bulls took firm control with a 24-9 lead. They were on the back foot for the next 15 minutes, but dug in in defence, with Cardiff’s maul a threat, but a weapon they failed to capitalise on through their own errors.

The Bulls then buried Cardiff in the final quarter with three more tries. Penetrative eighthman Elrigh Louw made big inroads off the back of a lineout, lock Ruan Nortje then crashing over for the try.

Arendse then produced a lovely little dink-kick over the top of the defensive line for Moodie to score his second try, while Louw scored a deserved try with three minutes remaining as he went over from a brilliantly-deceptive splinter-maul.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Canan Moodie (2), Kurt-Lee Arendse, Johan Goosen, Ruan Nortje, Elrigh Louw. Conversions – Goosen (5), Chris Smith. Penalty – Goosen.

Cardiff: Penalties – Jarrod Evans (3).

Bulls coach Jake White spent most of the last week emphasising how important a good start would be for his underdog team against the fast-starting Leinster side in their United Rugby Championship semi-final in Dublin.

So when the Bulls almost immediately conceded a soft offsides penalty and hot favourites Leinster were straight on to their goal-line, bashing away, one would imagine White would have been angry. But what followed was 11 phases of brilliant, brave defence that kept Leinster out. It would arguably be the making of the Bulls side and their stunning 27-26 win, the scoreline flattering Leinster because they scored after the final hooter.

“A lot has been said about Leinster, but they generally start well,” White said after what he rated as one of his most memorable wins as a coach. “We were forced to defend for the first couple of minutes.

“But then we managed to kick downfield and that changed the momentum of the game. Leinster were shown to be human, they normally don’t make silly mistakes, but they had one or two moments.

“In a one-point game, that makes the difference. It was never fait accompli against them, you have never done enough to keep them out. I’m happy they didn’t start like they ended with that last phase.

“This has got to be up there for me in terms of wins, Leinster have been the dominant force in European rugby, but our team has learnt what they need to do against international players,” White said.

The Bulls pack produced the sort of proud, combative, massively powerful display that inspires songs to be written about them and, in Dublin, it would probably be translated as the Bulls eateth not off the floor.

But White was also pleased his team showed some wonderful touches on attack.

“The Bulls have always historically had good forward play, but I really enjoyed the interplay between backs and forwards, especially in the first half.

“But the key against Leinster is to not give them set-piece, and we turned the ball over in a couple of key late lineouts, and our physicality on the gainline caused them to have a couple of knock-ons, which they don’t generally do.

“It was obviously a great win for us, but a couple of things did work in our favour, like the weather turning bad at one stage.

“But this whole group has grown significantly and the one thing we have got right is to play our best rugby in the knockout stages. I hope we continue to play with that intensity, composure and confidence,” White said ahead of this weekend’s final against the Stormers in Cape Town.

The Springbok-laden Sharks are happy to take the underdogs’ tag into their United Rugby Championship quarterfinal against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, even though coach Sean Everitt said it did not matter much and the most important thing in a knockout match was to “focus on yourselves”.

Everitt named a team on Friday with nine Springboks in the starting line-up, while the Bulls have four Springboks in their squad, none of them incumbents.

Little wonder then that the Sharks coach did not put much store in the underdogs tag, even if his players have been fired up by it.

“Being called the underdog probably suits us and the players are very motivated by it,” Everitt said. “The Bulls are a formidable team to target at home, but fortunately we’ve had success in Pretoria and we are not too daunted by it.

“You have to focus on yourselves in quarterfinals because anyone from No.1 to No.8 can win. When you reach the knockouts, it’s about being in it.

“We’ve played good rugby along the way, and unfortunately not getting the result we wanted against Ulster does not make us a bad team. We’re taking a lot of confidence into this game, especially because of our success in the URC against the Bulls.

“Anything can happen on the day, we just have to make sure we focus on our processes and our discipline. And we can’t have soft moments in defence,” Everitt said.

Apart from defensive solidity, the Sharks are going to require a continuation of their recent set-piece dominance over the Bulls and composure under pressure.

“The Bulls have improved their set-piece, but we need that dominance in a knock-out game. That, defence and territory are the three important things and you need all of them.

“The Bulls have really developed their attack well since we beat them in February, they counter-attack well and their kick-return metres have almost doubled. But there are still opportunities for us there.

“At times we have performed really well, but there have been some unfortunate slip-ups. Some of those were controllable, others were not.

“But as a whole we have improved as a team and I am very happy with where we are at. It’s very important for our big players to stand up, their experience is going to be important to bring that calmness we need to be able to focus,” Everitt said.

Sharks: Aphelele Fassi, Werner Kok, Lukhanyo Am, Marius Louw, Makazole Mapimpi, Curwin Bosch, Jaden Hendrikse, Phepsi Buthelezi, Henco Venter, Siya Kolisi, Reniel Hugo, Le Roux Roets, Thomas du Toit (CAPT), Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche, Replacements:  Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Khutha Mchunu, Ruben van Heerden, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Grant Williams, Boeta Chamberlain, Ben Tapuai.

In a very important development for South African hockey, the FIH Women’s Junior World Cup will be hosted by the North-West University in Potchefstroom from December 5-16.

But this is not just an historic landmark for South Africa but Africa as a whole, because it is the first hockey world cup at any level to played on the continent.

As hosts, South Africa’s U21 team gets to play in the tournament, joining 15 other countries in the biennial event that brings together sides from every continent.

Sheldon Rostron, the former head coach of the South African senior women’s side, is the chairman of the local organising committee in his capacity as the director of sport at North-West University.

“This is a very important honour for South African hockey,” Rostron said. “It will have several spinoffs like establishing that we can host more events like this in South Africa.

“We can build a foundation of trust with the FIH and hopefully they will see us as a prime destination for future events. The country is hungry for hockey and hopefully corporates will see this global event, identify it as being exciting and invest more in hockey.

“It also gives our South African hockey players more international exposure, which is always great, and because we are in as hosts, it means Zimbabwe will be a second African team in the competition, which is also a first,” Rostron said.

North-West University is known for its world-class sporting facilities and leading teams and athletes from all over the world have held camps in Potchefstroom. Rostron said they are well-equipped to host such an important event.

“The good thing about Potchefstroom for sportspeople is that you are in close proximity to all the resources you need. It has always been the focus of the university to assist athletes and federations, and they come from across the world to come train here.

“With our high-performance institute and local businesses all being accustomed to events like this, it’s really easy to host tournaments in Potchefstroom,” Rostron said.

It is going to be tough though for the South African team to make it through to the quarterfinals from their pool: Germany, Spain and the United States are their opponents and all of them are women’s hockey powerhouses.

Australia and New Zealand were not able to play due to Covid travel restrictions in their countries.

Pools

Pool A – Ireland, Korea, Netherlands, Zimbabwe.

Pool B – Belgium, Canada, England, Uruguay.

Pool C – Argentina, India, Japan, Russia.

Pool D – Germany, South Africa, Spain, United States.