Bulls pull off courageous win

The Bulls snatched an unlikely win in the United Rugby Championship (URC) thanks to the grunt of their forwards on Friday night.

They dug deep in every sense to record a courageous 17-15 win over Benetton in trying conditions in Treviso.

The Bulls were struck by illness with four players afflicted including flyhalf Boeta Chamberlain necessitating the introduction of scrumhalf Keagan Johannes into that position.

The Bulls seemed off colour in the game too as the home team set the tone, crucially though, without dominating or pulling clear.

The Bulls stayed in the contest and just when it looked as if their cause was lost they dug deep after falling 12-3 behind inside the last 20 minutes.

Two powerful driving mauls resulted in tries inside the last 12 minutes earning them a precious away win to bring down the curtain on their tour.

Elrigh Louw, Marcell Coetzee, Akker van der Merwe and Cameron Hanekom toiled hard and the pressure the pack applied earned the Bulls favourable field position from where they could launch for the try line.

With the game in the balance with less than three minutes to go they kicked a penalty into touch and soon their maul rumbled into action.

A second surge gave them the momentum to get over the line with Van der Merwe the man in possession.

It was down to David Kriel to turn that effort into a win and he nervelessly banged over the conversion from an acute angle.

The Bulls then held on in the final minute for the win but they had much to overcome from the first half.

Their game lacked continuity in the wet conditions and handling errors piled up. They also squandered opportunity.

When they looked set to score the game's first try just after 10 minutes they lost the ball in contact.

Johannes registered the Bulls' first points when he converted a penalty in the 22nd minute but by then the hosts had knocked over two of their own.

Benetton flyhalf Tomas Albornoz banged over his third penalty in the 34th minute and the hosts looked to have the Bulls at arm's length.

Desperation got the Bulls asking more questions but imprecision continued to dog them.

In the 53rd minute scrumhalf Embrose Papier appeared to engineer a move that looked like resulting in a try for Kurt-Lee Arendse but he could not deliver the decisive pass.

The Bulls did get over the line in the 58th minute but the effort was ruled out when Arendse was ruled to have knocked the ball forward in the build-up.

Benetton continued to apply the squeeze with the boot and when they trapped the Bulls inside their 22 in the 61st minute a penalty their way seemed inevitable. It duly arrived and Albornoz banged over his fourth kick from the tee to take his team beyond a converted try ahead of the visitors.

To the Bulls' credit heads did not drop. Slowly but surely the visiting forwards got a grip and they were starting to profit from the tactical kicking duel.

The visitors got themselves back into the contest when they made the most of a penalty they opted to kick into touch in the 67th minute.

They deployed their maul, made ground before fracturing but they had enough momentum to get Reinhardt Ludwig to run onto the ball and stretch for the line.

Kriel added to conversion to make it a two-point game with 12 minutes to go.

Though Benetton added their fifth penalty the Bulls delivered the killer blow at the death.

Scorers

Benetton (9) 15 — Penalties: Tomas Albornoz (5)

Bulls (3) 17 — Tries: Reinhardt Ludwig, Akker van der Merwe. Conversions: David Kriel (2). Penalty: Keagan Johannes.