United Rugby Championship: Bulls 47 Ulster 21
As anticipated, the Bulls put Ulster to the sword and then some at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, with their Springbok-heavy squad scoring seven tries on their way to just falling short of racking up a half-century of points.
The hosts dominated Ulster’s scrum for most of the northern province’s second successive game at altitude and led 21-7 by half-time before then racing on to lead 40-7 before the visitors scored any further points.
Jacob Stockdale, Ben Carson and Stewart Moore crossed for Ulster, who actually found themselves in range of securing an unlikely looking bonus-point try, as was the case the week before in Johannesburg, though such an opportunity in Pretoria was denied them by a strong finish from Jake White’s squad.
For Richie Murphy, who blooded a raft of less experienced players, this was a difficult but not entirely unexpected end to Ulster’s two-game mini-tour and they must now quickly regroup before Connacht come to Belfast next Saturday.
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Five minutes in and on penalty advantage with an already dominant looking scrum, Kurt-Lee Arendse cut through to score, with Boeta Chamberlain converting.
But to their credit, Ulster exploited some narrowness in the Bulls’ defence when Aidan Morgan hit a perfect crosskick for Stockdale, who got around Arendse and chipped Willie le Roux before collecting the bounce and going over.
Nathan Doak’s conversion tied things up but five minutes later the Bulls pulled off a similar score. Le Roux’s chip to the wing hit Chamberlain who rounded Michael Lowry and drew the remaining cover and put David Kriel clear. Chamberlain’s conversion made it 14-7.
With Ulster’s scrum imploding – coughing up six penalties by the half-hour – Ben Whitehouse lost patience and binned prop Corrie Barrett, with the Bulls taking immediate advantage through a maul try by Johan Grobbelaar which was again converted by Chamberlain.
The half ended with 14-man Ulster admirably pressing for a score, but Morgan knocked on from a Stewart Moore pass as they went wide following a series of pick and jams near the Bulls’ line, and the scoreline stayed at 21-7 as the sides trooped off.
The Bulls meant business when the sides returned, striking for their bonus point within a minute as Canan Moodie charged away off an assist by Kriel just as Ulster came back to full strength again.
A promising Ulster attack was then penalised at the breakdown, leading to Chamberlain kicking to the corner. The result was a driving maul and Cameron Hanekom snatched try number five for the hosts which went unconverted.
Moodie then had his second try of the day ruled out for an obstruction by Le Roux, and very shortly afterwards Chamberlain touched down, Kriel converting to bring up the 40 points for the hosts.
But Ulster kept things going and with 12 minutes remaining. Coming off the nbench to make his debut, James Humphreys put Ben Carson away to make the corner, with Humphreys adding the conversion.
Then, three minutes later, Ulster had a third try when Moore was the beneficiary and Humphreys converted again.
With three minutes left, though, Elrigh Louw scored for the hosts, with Keagan Johannes converting.
BULLS: W le Roux; S de Klerk, C Moodie, D Kriel, K-L Arendse; B Chamberlain, E Papier; G Steenekamp, J Grobbelaar, W Louw; C Wiese, R Nortje (capt); M van Staden, E Louw, C Hanekom.
Replacements: A van der Merwe for Grobbelaar (56 mins); C Gumede for Hanekom (55-68); F Klopper for W Louw (59); J-H Wessels for Steenkamp, S Manjezi for Wiese, K Johannes for Papier (all 60); S Gans for Kriel (68); A Dyantyi for Arendse (70).
ULSTER: M Lowry; W Kok, S Moore, B Carson, J Stockdale; A Morgan, N Doak; A Warwick, J McCormick, C Barrett; I Henderson (capt), C Irvine; J McNabney, S Reffell, D McCann.
Replacements: T O’Toole for Raffell (31-41 mins) and for Barrett (49); E O’Sullivan for Warwick (49); T McElroy for McCormick, A O’Connor for Henderson (both 51); N Timoney for McCann, B Moxham for Stockdale (both 58); D Shanahan for Doak (59), J Humphreys for Morgan (61).
Referee: B Whitehouse (WRU).
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