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).

Bulls coach Jake White certainly seems to have located his best starting XV and there is little doubt it is the side that will run out on to Kings Park on Saturday evening to play the Sharks in a Currie Cup thriller.

Barring Marnus Potgieter making his Currie Cup starting debut on the right wing that is. The 21-year-old is promoted from the bench because Travis Ismaiel is unable to fill the vacancy created by David Kriel moving back to fullback because he has just had a shoulder operation. Potgieter is 1.87 metres tall, weighs 94kg and played twice for the Blue Bulls in the 2018 SuperSport Rugby Challenge.

“Marnus has been a great junior player, he was at Affies and a member of the 4×100 metre relay team and has come through the ranks here at Loftus. He has lots of pace and he’s big and strong,” White said.

Apart from Ismaiel, all the familiar faces are back as White also moved Kurt-Lee Arendse back to left wing, Ivan van Zyl returns at scrumhalf, Ruan Nortje will start again in the second row and Trevor Nyakane and Jacques van Rooyen are the starting props.

Springbok Marcel van der Merwe, the tighthead who was replaced after 34 minutes against the Free State Cheetahs last weekend, is nowhere to be found on the bench though. White said he still has faith though in the 30-year-old even though 22-year-old Mornay Smith will be the replacement tighthead against the Sharks.

“We still back Marcel and we will help him through it, he had a long-term injury and has not played much rugby. I’m not going to discard him, we will help him back on the horse. Maybe the Free State loosehead prop was able to get away with a bit, there’s been lots of debate about that,” White said.

The former Springbok coach did however praise the influence of Nyakane both on and off the field.

“Marcel will come right and Trevor almost did the same things as Marcel and we got rewarded, so I’m just thankful that referee Jaco Peyper is good enough and experienced enough to see the whole picture. There’s a misconception that we took off our tighthead because he was struggling, but it was because we wanted the loosehead to try and do the same things to Trevor.

“It’s not as if Trevor came on and waved a wand, but he showed stability and the players around him obviously get confidence from that. I haven’t worked with Trevor before but he’s been really good both on and off the field – right now he’s having one-on-ones with young Jan-Hendrik Wessels on loosehead versus tighthead,” White said.

Bulls team: David Kriel, Marnus Potgieter, Stedman Gans, Cornal Hendricks, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Morné Steyn, Ivan van Zyl, Duane Vermeulen (capt), Arno Botha, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Trevor Nyakane, Johan Grobbelaar, Jacques van Rooyen. Bench – Schalk Erasmus, Gerhard Steenekamp, Mornay Smith, Sintu Manjezi, Nizaam Carr, Embrose Papier, Chris Smith, Marco Jansen van Vuren.