Bulls hang on to pip Sunwolves

The Sunwolves were trailing by 10 points with 14 minutes remaining in the match and threw caution to the wind as they went in search of a dramatic win. However, it was not to be as the Bulls hung on to claim their second victory of the competition while the Sunwolves remain winless.

The Sunwolves made their intentions clear in the opening minutes as they ran the ball at the Bulls. Riaan Viljoen placed a well weighted grubber that the Bulls failed to deal with. He chased it down and had the presence of mind to offload to a charging Andrew Durutalo, who bashed his way through two would-be defenders to grab the opening score.

Tusi Pisi made no mistake with the conversion as the Sunwolves led 7-0 after three minutes.

The Bulls went straight on the attack from the restart and after several phases, got themselves to the Sunwolves five metre line. The home side were caught in an offside position at the breakdown to hand Tian Schoeman the chance to reduce the deficit. He did just that and the Bulls were on the board in the fifth minute.

Pisi and Schoeman traded penalties in the 13th and 17th minutes as the Sunwolves maintained their four-point lead. Tomas Leonardi saw yellow in the 20th minute when he intentionally slowed down the Bulls' ball a metre from his try line. Schoeman popped over the penalty to reduce the deficit to a solitary point.

The Bulls were starting to find their rhythm in the encounter and found reward in the 25th minute, thanks to a well-executed rolling maul. The Sunwolves could not handle the Bulls' power and captain Adriaan Strauss emerged with the ball. Schoeman made no mistake with the conversion to hand the Bulls a 16-10 lead.

The Bulls camped in the Sunwolves' territory for the remainder of the half but refused to make any attempt at scoring more tries. Each time they were awarded a penalty, they opted to have a shot at goal and it backfired as Schoeman was off target. Bulls went into the half-time break with a 16-10 lead.

Both sides were intent on running the ball after the resumption of play but handling errors let them down.

The Bulls found themselves with the perfect attacking opportunity with a line-out five metres from the Sunwolves' try line. They worked a neat play as Jason Jenkins received the throw-in before offloading to Roelof Smit who bashed his way over for his first Super Rugby try. Schoeman added the conversion to stretch the lead to 23-10 after 47 minutes.

Pisi brought the Sunwolves to within 10 points of the Bulls when he slotted a long range penalty in the 51st minute after the Bulls were penalised at scrum time.

The Bulls kept the pressure on the Sunwolves and after a period of scrappy play, the Sunwolves produced a moment of brilliance. Akihito Yamada received the ball on his 22 and sped down the line. Some neat interplay and excellent support running between Pisi and Yamada saw the later grab a brilliant score in the corner.

Pisi slotted a tough conversion attempt to reduce the deficit to 20-23 after 56 minutes. Viljoen had the chance to draw the sides level a minute later but his 56 metre penalty attempt ricocheted off the right upright.

The Bulls were under all sorts of pressure but rose to the occasion to keep the Sunwolves our before they finally managed to gain some possession. After a sustained period of attacks, replacement prop Trevor Nyakane rumbled his way over the line but was held up. From the resulting five metre scrum, Jamba Ulengo received the ball at first receiver and a sniping run saw him dot the ball down against the cushion.

Schoeman had an easy conversion to hand the Bulls a 30-20 lead after 66 minutes.

The remainder of the match was a scrappy affair but the Sunwolves showed plenty of determination to keep the match unstructured as they searched for a late score. The final hooter went and the Sunwolves made one last push with an attacking line-out five metres from the Bulls' try line.

They secured the ball and when it reached the hands of Yuki Yatomi, the replacement scrumhalf made a dart through a massive hole to score under the posts. Pisi popped over the conversion as the Sunwolves claimed a losing bonus point.

Man of the match: In a scrappy affair, any moment of decent rugby would catch the eye. Akihito Yamada was a thorn in the Bulls' side with some devastating runs while Tusi Pisi was once again the centre of attention. Warrick Gelant showed what a class player he is but a knock to the head cut his match short. The Bulls had a mixed bag at scrum time but for his excellent work at the breakdown and string carries, flank Roelof Smit gets the nod.

Scorers:

For Sunwolves:

Tries: Durutalo, Yamada, Yatomi

Cons: Pisi 3

Pens: Pisi 2

For Bulls:

Tries: Strauss, Smit, Ulengo

Cons: Schoeman 3

Pens: Schoeman 3

Yellow cards: Tomas Leonardi (Sunwolves, cynical foul - slowing the ball down, 20); Ed Quirk (Sunwolves, repeated infringements - off feet at the breakdown, 68)

Teams:

Sunwolves: 15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Viliami Lolohea, 13 Harumichi Tatekawa, 12 Yu Tamura, 11 Akihito Yamada, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Kaito Shigeno, 8 Tomas Leonardi, 7 Andrew Durutalo, 6 Yoshiya Hosoda, 5 Liaki Moli, 4 Hitoshi Ono , 3 Takuma Asahara, 2 Shota Horie (captain), 1 Keith Inagaki.

Replacements: 16 Futoshi Mori,17 Masataka Mikami, 18 Shinosuke Kakinaga, 19 Shinya Makabe, 20 Ed Quirk, 21 Yuki Yatomi, 22 Mifiposeti Paea, 23 Yasutaka Sasakura.

Bulls: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Jamba Ulengo, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Arno Botha, 7 Jannes Kirsten, 6 Roelof Smit, 5 RG Snyman, 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Lizo Gqoboka.

Replacements: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Pierre Schoeman, 19 Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, 20 Nicholas de Jager, 21 Piet van Zyl, 22 Francois Brummer, 23 Jan Serfontein.

Referee: William Houston