Dominant Bulls grab 5 points in Johannesburg

The Vodacom Bulls finally recorded their second victory in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship when they beat the Emirates Lions by 34-10 in a hard-fought Jukskei Derby on a wet Saturday afternoon in in Johannesburg.

Unlike last week, the men from Pretoria started very well, and they breached the hosts’ try-line four times in the first half hour, with the TMO unfortunately disallowing two of these “tries”. But the Vodacom Bulls were still dominant enough in the first half to go into the break leading by 20-3.

The visitors were under pressure in the scrums but created a lot of opportunities, with Johan Grobbelaar (hooker) and Embrose Papier rewarded with first-half tries, and they built on this in the second half, with Arno Botha (loose forward) and Harold Vorster (centre) grabbing two more five-pointers.

On the contrary, the Emirates Lions only managed to get into the game in the 10 minutes before the break, making too many unforced errors to really trouble their neighbours’ defence. This trend continued after the break as the hosts let slip numerous opportunities.

Scorers:

Emirates Lions 10 (3) – Try: Jaco Kriel. Conversion: Tiaan Swanepoel. Penalty goal: Fred Zeilinga.

Vodacom Bulls 34 (20) – Tries: Johan Grobbelaar, Embrose Papier, Arno Botha, Harold Vorster. Conversions: Morne Steyn (4). Penalty goals: Steyn (2).