CAPE TOWN – The Bulls overcame two yellow cards in an entertaining display to secure a 56-33 win over Griquas at Loftus on Wednesday night.
Griquas got the first points early on when George Whitehead slotted over two early penalties, but the hosts responded with a three-pointer of their own to get on the scoreboard (3-6) and followed it up with some easy points after a charge down, which was intercepted by Johan Goosen, who bolted to the tryline to convert his own try (10-6).
Despite being one-man down, the men from Pretoria started to take control after that and were further boosted by Smith’s return. They converted that control into points when Schalk Erasmus went over for an unconverted score (15-6).
Kurt-Lee Arendse went over for their third in the corner after manoeuvring himself out of a tackle and taking the score to 20-6.
Whitehead added his third penalty (20-9), and on the stroke of half time, Stefan Ungerer helped them close in on the Bulls with a converted try (20-16).
For Griquas – who brought it to the Bulls towards the end of the first half – catching up and building on that momentum, while also negating the Bulls’ scrummaging power, was key. They did well early on in the second 40, with Whitehead adding a fourth penalty (20-19), but the hosts looked set to shift into a new gear, with Walt Steenkamp finishing off a solid team effort to go 27-19 up after a converted try.
Goosen added his second penalty right in front of the posts to stretch their lead (30-19), but Arendse was yellow-carded shortly afterwards for a deliberate knock-on, which saw the Griquas awarded a penalty try (30-26).
This didn’t stop the Bulls, however, as they superbly brought their forwards into the game after that. They were rewarded for the display when Elrigh Louw slid through Griquas’ defence to put them well in the lead with 20 to go (37-26).
The Bulls completely ran away with things after that with tries by Erasmus, Jan Hendrik Wessels and Arendse. While Griquas got a consolation try by Janco Uys at the end, the Bulls were just too lethal.
Point scorers:
Bulls: 56 – Tries: Johan Goosen, Schalk Erasmus (2), Kurt-Lee Arendse (2), Walt Steenkamp, Elrigh Louw, Jan Hendrik Wessels Conversions: Goosen (4), Chris Smith (1) Penalties: Goosen (2) Yellow cards: Mornay Smith, Kurt-Lee Arendse
Griquas: 33 – Tries: Stefan Ungerer, penalty try, Janco Uys Conversions: George Whitehead, Chris Smitt Penalties: Whitehead (4)
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