United Rugby Championship: Bulls 47 Ulster 21
As anticipated, the Bulls put Ulster to the sword and then some, 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 a securing an unlikely-looking bonus point try, as was the case the week before in Johannesburg, though such an opportunity in Pretoria was denied of 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, Boeta Chamberlain converting.
But to their credit, Ulster exploited some narrowness in the Bulls’ defence when Aidan Morgan hit a perfect cross-kick for Jacob Stockdale who got around Arendse, chipped Willie le Roux, collected the bounce and reached the line.
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 hitting Chamberlain who rounded Lowry, 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 the northern province 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, Canan Moodie charging away off an assist by Kriel when then converted 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, James Humphreys put Ben Carson away to make the corner. Humphreys added the conversion.
Then, three minutes later, Ulster had a third try when Moore the beneficiary and Humphreys converted again.
With three minutes left, though, Elrigh Louw scored for the hosts, 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, J-H Wessels for Steenkamp 60 mins, F Klopper for W Louw 59 mins, S Manjezi for Wiese 60 mins, C Gumede for Hanekom 55-68mins, K Johannes for Papier 60 mins, S Gans for Kriel 68 mins, A Dyantyi for Arendse 70 mins
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 McElroy for McCormick 51 mins, E O’Sullivan for Warwick 49 mins, T O’Toole for Raffell 31-41 mins then for Barrett 49 mins, A O’Connor for Henderson 51 mins, N Timoney for McCann 58 mins, D Shanahan for Doak 59 mins, J Humphreys for Morgan 61 mins, B Moxham for Stockdale 58 mins
Referee: B Whitehouse (WRU)
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