Cape Town - At halftime, it looked like it was going to be a long night once again for the Bulls against Benetton in Treviso.
Having suffered a 35-8 thrashing in the Rainbow Cup final last year June at the Stadio Monigo, the Pretoria side may have had a sense of déjà vu at the break on Friday night.
Just nothing seemed to go right for them in the opening 40 minutes. They had lineout problems once again, they gave away scrum penalties, and almost every time they actually made it into the Benetton half, they would cough up possession or make the wrong decision.
Added to that was the accurate boot of Benetton flyhalf Tomas Albornoz, who slotted three penalties for the 9-3 halftime lead, and it seemed that the Bulls were doomed for another forgettable loss on their three-week United Rugby Championship tour.
They rolled up their sleeves and the passes started sticking, and they scrambled well to plug the holes in their defence. The forwards got stuck in physically as well, and captain Marcell Coetzee led the way in the breakdown battle alongside Marco van Staden and Bismarck du Plessis.
And Tries by Ruan Nortje – following a great burst by Van Staden and snipe from Embrose Papier – and Elrigh Louw brought them back into the game.
And even though Albornoz put Benetton 22-20 ahead with around 20 minutes to go, the Bulls roared back to score three more tries to close out a 44-22 bonus-point triumph.
“It’s funny: I said to the coaching staff in the coaches’ box – I have a feeling we can finish this off well. It looked as though they were dead on their feet just before halftime, and we didn’t finish. We basically got onto their tryline and turned the ball over,” coach Jake White said afterwards.
“Maybe the scoreline could’ve been closer at halftime. But the talk at halftime was that we’ve got them on the ropes, and every time we’re down there, we’re putting them under pressure.
“It’s always nice when you go into the change room at halftime and you get the feeling that even if you’re 9-3 down, they genuinely feel as though they are getting the ascendancy.
“And it was the feeling at halftime: if we keep going and bashing the wall, and asking questions of their defence – which we did – the dam wall would break. To score five tries in the second half is obviously fantastic.”
The one dampener was the ankle injury to Louw, who is in danger of missing out on the Springbok end-of-year tour after getting hurt in the maul that led to Jan-Hendrik Wessels’ late try.
White said the No 8 would go for a scan to determine the extent of the damage, but he has not yet been ruled out of next Sunday’s derby against the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld, although Louw and Johan Goosen (concussion) were withdrawn from the Bok training camp starting in Stellenbosch today.
The Bulls are not sure yet if the rest of the Bok contingent who were set to attend the camp – Sbu Nkosi and Kurt-Lee Arendse – will face the Sharks, but they hope to continue their upward curve, having finished their tour on a high after defeats to Glasgow and Munster.
“They are all going to a camp now, and by Wednesday, whoever isn’t selected for the 25-man squad for the Ireland Test (on November 5) will be sent back to their provinces,” White said.
“So, we have to find out when the national selectors decide on their 25-man squad, and whoever is not in that squad that travels on Saturday will come back on Wednesday and be available to play for their provinces on Sunday.
“Two losses in a row, 9-3 down away from home… how much more character can you show than what they did in the second half?
“Credit to them, credit to the captain. Credit to the belief in the squad. And that is sometimes the catalyst you need, just to jump-start where you need to be.
“I think of many times last year when certain things happened, and it was the catalyst for us to turn our season around. Who knows, maybe this away bonus-point win and a 40-pointer in the second half – and getting rid of what happened here before – is maybe what we needed as a group.”
Points-Scorers
Benetton 22 – Try: Manuel Zuliani. Conversion: Tomas Albornoz (1). Penalties: Albornoz (5).
Bulls 44 – Tries: Ruan Nortje, Elrigh Louw, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Marcell Coetzee, Stravino Jacobs. Conversions: Chris Smith (2), Morné Steyn (3). Penalties: Smith (3).
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