Jake White's Bulls down South Africa 'A'

Jake White's Bulls have beaten South Africa 'A' in their friendly at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.

The accurate boot of Chris Smith decided the match with the pivot landing a monster penalty goal to hand the Bulls a hard-fought and deserved 17-14 win over South Africa 'A'.

Smith, who had replaced an impressive Johan Goosen minutes earlier, placed the kicking tee just inside his half and the ball snuck over the crossbar, but they all count and the Vodacom Bulls took the lead with less than five minutes left.

On debut, Goosen turned things in the favour of the Bulls as he led the charge for the men from Pretoria were trailing by 14-0 at the break, Goosen broke through the South Africa 'A' defence to send Keagan Johannes racing in for a try under the sticks and a minute later, Johan Grobbelaar scored on the same spot, both converted by Goosen to draw scores level in a flash.

After 65 minutes of to and fro and some glimpses of class, Goosen stepped inside some defenders and fed his halfback partner who ran in untouched. The Johannes try gave some meaning to the game, and certainly sparked the interest of Goosen, who sniffed out the opportunity like an experienced pivot.

From the restart, Goosen again saw a gap in the tiring SA 'A'-side defence and put Muller Uys through at full speed. The big flanker ran strongly and the Vodacom Bulls distributed nicely out to the wing, where FC du Plessis found himself trapped against the touchline, but a clever kick infield was gathered by Grobbelaar who ran in without a green jersey in sight.

Goosen kicked the conversion and suddenly it was all square with 10 minutes to play, which is how it stayed until Smith landed the bomb that earned Jacques Nienaber a first defeat in green and gold as head coach.

Cobus Reinach delivering a sniping break to hand Aphelele Fassi an easy run in. Elton Jantjies converted from right in front to hand his team a 7-0 lead 12 minutes in.

The Bulls came with a ferocious charge though and from the kick-off enjoyed a long spell inside the SA 'A' 22. They kept pegging away at the A-side's defence and got some sort of reward then Wandisile Simelane was binned for going offside.

Both teams showed little ambition to carry the ball in the early stages, but the game opened up midway through the first half, with both sides starting to use their backs to gain territory. Tight defence reigned though and it became a slugfest of rucks and big hits.

The second try of the match came just before halftime, with Simelane getting his five pointer. The midfielder had to thank a number of good runs by a rash of ball-carriers, as the SA 'A'-side seemed to find some patience on attack and a willingness to work off the ball.

They stretched the Bulls defence till Simelane could eventually just drop over the line without a defender in sight to stop him. 

Scorers:

South Africa 'A' 14 (14) - Tries: Aphelele Fassi, Wandisile Simelane. Conversions: Elton Jantjies (2).

Vodacom Bulls 17 (0) - Tries: Keagan Johannes, Johan Grobbelaar. Conversions: Johan Goosen (2). Penalty goal: Chris Smith.