Ken Borland

The Bulls were rescued by a 78^th-minute Morne Steyn penalty, and the fact that Henry Immelman missed one after the final hooter, as they scraped to a 33-31 win over Edinburgh in a dingdong United Rugby Championship thriller at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The Bulls made the early running and were dominant and clinical in sailing into a 15-0 lead in 22 minutes. But they were then stunned by the quality and slickness of Edinburgh’s attacking play, and ripped apart by right wing Darcy Graham’s hat-trick of tries.

The Bulls were great going forward, but once Edinburgh recovered from an error-strewn start, including a yellow card to captain Grant Gilchrist, the visitors really tested their defence, which was caught being too narrow at times and also missed one-on-one tackles.

Graham rounded the defence for his opening try in the 32^nd minute, Edinburgh cutting the deficit to 14-15 at half time.

The Bulls started the second half superbly with Cornal Hendricks scoring after being set up by the forwards – Elrigh Louw made yards over the gainline after the home side won back the kickoff, Marcell Coetzee broke through on a great inside line, and there was slick interplay between locks Walt Steenkamp and Ruan Nortje.

But Edinburgh immediately struck back as Graham followed up a long-range Mark Bennett penalty that struck the poles and bounced into unguarded territory.

A Chris Smith penalty stretched the Bulls’ lead back to 25-19, but they lost the restart and Graham rounded off a superb try that featured brilliant handling by eighthman Viliame Mata and fullback Immelman.

The Bulls, spluttering between excellence and mediocrity, scored another fine try featuring some good hands in a prolonged build-up, replacement prop Simphiwe Matanzima providing some key energy with a strong carry, before wing Stravino Jacobs ran on to a well-aimed pass from Embrose Papier and stretched over to score.

But Edinburgh just kept on coming and they finally overtook the Bulls with 11 minutes remaining. Playing off a lineout, they showed wonderful attacking skills, the slick hands of their backs working left wing Damien Hoyland over for the try, converted by outside centre Mark Bennett for a 31-30 lead.

The Bulls then conceded a scrum penalty, but Immelman missed from 54 metres out, before the home side then won a penalty at the set-piece. Their lineout was especially dominant on Saturday and they earned another penalty from a driving maul, allowing Steyn to shoot at goal. He was on the 10m line, six metres in from touch, and there was seldom any doubt he would nail the tricky kick.

But then Jacobs went in high on Bennett in a thunderous tackle, and was rightly penalised after extensive consultations between the officials.

Immelman from 46 metres out and 12 metres in from touch, was wide, the Bulls escaping a painful loss.

But Edinburgh have certainly left Loftus Versfeld with immense credit, while the Bulls will need to work on getting more defensive steel.

Scorers

Bulls – Tries: Johan Grobbelaar, Elrigh Louw, Cornal Hendricks, Stravino Jacobs. Conversions: Chris Smith (2). Penalties: Smith (2), Steyn.

Edinburgh – Tries: Charlie Savala, Darcy Graham (3), Damien Hoyland. Conversions: Mark Bennett (3).

New Springbok Elrigh Louw was apparently as excited as a young kid on his birthday to be back playing with the Bulls, who also welcome back Johan Goosen, making a long-awaited return from injury, for their United Rugby Championship match against Edinburgh at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Goosen’s return to play from a long-term injury will be watched keenly by a Springbok management who have something of a flyhalf crisis, but the 30-year-old will be playing fullback on Saturday, while Louw slots in at eighthman for the Bulls.

“Elrigh got hold of me two minutes after he had been told he was being released from the Springbok camp and said he really needs to play this weekend for the Bulls,” coach Jake White said at Loftus Versfeld on Friday.

“He’s young and just loves to play and he’s really looking forward to playing for the Bulls again, after a great hit-out last weekend against Argentina. I’m looking forward to that loose forward combination with him, Marcell Coetzee and Ruan Vermaak.

“We are easing Johan back into play, playing him at fullback gives him the chance to get into the game without having to control everything from Minute One. We’re being conservative.

“We’ll find the right time for him to slot back at flyhalf, but he won’t last 80 minutes. We want to keep him out of the firing line a bit, but I’m sure he’ll try push his way into 10 at times,” White explained.

Both teams are coming off good starts to the URC season, with the Bulls having beaten the Lions 31-15 at Ellis Park and Edinburgh thumping the Dragons 44-6. But White believes his team are going to have to raise the bar against Edinburgh, who he feels are more equipped to fully punish the moments of looseness they showed last weekend. The Lions made some rookie mistakes on attack.

“We can’t be inaccurate against Edinburgh, give them the same opportunities we gave the Lions, because they will be better organised and more difficult to keep out. They are a good side.

“We will have to play well, they’re one of the sides we didn’t beat last season, so we know we have got to be up for it. We weren’t great last week, but we got the job done.

“But Edinburgh have a lot of experience, they are well-coached and they move the ball around, they try to go around you. They have some internationals who have played World Cups, Six Nations every year, so that gives them confidence.

“They are a group that has played together a lot and we cannot underestimate them. They also have four South African props, who I’m sure will be important,” White said.

Bulls team:Johan Goosen, Cornal Hendricks, Lionel Mapoe, David Kriel, Stravino Jacobs, Chris Smith, Zak Burger; Elrigh Louw, Ruan Vermaak, Marcell Coetzee (CAPT), Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Mornay Smith, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp. IMPACT -Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Simphiwe Matanzima, Francois Klopper, Janko Swanepoel, Marco van Staden; Embrose Papier, Morne Steyn, Stedman Gans.

At 22-years-old, Elrigh Louw was the baby of the Springbok team at the weekend, making his Test debut off the bench in the city of his birth, but the loose forward was certainly not over-awed as he produced a powerful display in the second-half comeback by the home side against Wales at Loftus Versfeld.

Whether carrying powerfully, making crunching tackles or standing up to the gibberish of Dan Biggar, Louw was influential in the half-hour he spent on the field.

Captain Siya Kolisi praised the Bulls talent afterwards saying, “Elrigh was special, it’s amazing how chilled he was.”

Louw himself exuded the air of someone with a very mature, focused head on his shoulders.

“We were under pressure when I came on, but I knew exactly what I had to do. I was able to enjoy it. I was actually more emotional when I heard I was in the 23 than running on the field,” Louw said after the 32-29 win.

“When I ran on, I knew my goal and I did not think about my emotions. I knew my Pa and Ma would be very emotional though.

“It’s an honour to hear my name mentioned as a Bomb Squad member, but the important thing was I knew exactly what the coaches expected of me,” Louw said.

The superb attack that resulted in Cheslin Kolbe’s crucial 65^th-minute try that closed Wales’ lead to just two points would see Louw go perilously close to scoring himself under the poles after a storming run.

“I just had one thing in mind and that was to dot the ball down on my debut, but Wales tied my shoelaces together quite well in the end,” Louw laughed.

He was more serious when taking co-responsibility for the rolling maul try the Springbok forwards conceded in the 77^th minute as Wales levelled the score at 29-29 with two forwards in the sin-bin.

“We will definitely go and have another look at that and what went wrong. For our pack that was not acceptable at all,” Louw said with a face that must have resembled the one he had whenever he was caught being naughty at Hoerskool Transvalia not that long ago.

But one of the nicest features of the weekend thriller in Pretoria was the birth of another new Springbok career that is sure to go a long way.

Having gambled and lost with his selection of Elton Jantjies at flyhalf, Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber bravely tried to limit the damage to his player’s confidence after the first Test against Wales at Loftus Versfeld.

Jantjies endured a miserable first half of skewed kicks out-of-hand, missed shots at goal and a dropped ball that led to a try, and was substituted before the start of the second half with the Springboks 18-3 down. Barring a few exceptions, the whole team had been sub-par in the first half, but with the help of pugnacious input from the bench, they staged a stirring comeback to win 32-29.

It is only right, though, that Nienaber stand up for Jantjies because the player was put in an invidious position by being selected for the first Test with, as the coach himself said after the game, “less than 30 minutes of game-time this year”.

I can understand why the risk was taken with Jantjies, who has only just recovered from a shoulder injury and whose club did not make the playoffs of Japan’s Rugby League One. The 31-year-old has also had the mental stress of being charged with malicious damage to property and contravention of the Aviation Act to deal with, before those charges were withdrawn after he agreed to pay for the damage he caused to an aeroplane flying back from Turkey.

Flyhalf is one of the few areas where the Springboks are lacking depth and the management were obviously planning ahead in case first-choice Handre Pollard suddenly gets injured. If Jantjies then had to come in and play with so little rugby under his belt, it could have been even worse.

The World Cup winner does now at least have 40 minutes of game-time, and hopefully the trauma of it has not dented his confidence too much.

Nienaber tried to sugarcoat his replacement as being because “he had given everything”, but when he said “he hasn’t played any rugby” he was closer to the reason why.

Despite the fan furore, Jantjies is still a player who has much to offer the Springboks. What he is capable of when in form definitely adds some attacking spark to a team which, for long periods of the first half against Wales, looked desperately in need of some offensive verve.

How he bounces back from this calamitous showing is what matters now.