Bulls break losing streak in Australasia
After the Bulls lost 11 matches in succession in Australasia since 2013, Nollis Marais' young team managed to break the losing streak against the Western Force in Perth over the weekend.
The Bulls scored the only win for the South African franchise teams over the weekend in a full round of Super Rugby fixtures, which saw all the local teams in action against overseas opponents.
The side from Pretoria made it six wins from eight starts this season so far with their comfortable and well-deserved 42-20 bonus-point win over the Western Force on Friday in Perth. They also broke a four-year winless drought in Australia with their sparkling victory.
The game was still in the balance when the visitors led 18-13 at the interval, their tries coming from former Junior Springbok skipper and Number 8 Hanro Liebenberg and Springbok centre Jan Serfontein.
The Force struck back through captain Matt Hodgson to keep the deficit at halftime to just five points. The young Bulls outfit displayed a keen willingness to run the ball and their handling and offloads were big features of their success.
After the resumption, fly half Francois Brummer slotted a penalty and that was followed by three tries, which all of a sudden stretched the lead to 42-13. A second try to Serfontein and then two by skipper Adriaan Strauss landed the knockout blow. The Force scored a consolation try after the final hooter when Kyle Godwin dived over.
With this impressive victory the Bulls snapped an 11-match losing streak for them in Australasia, because their last win before Friday was against the Blues in Auckland (28-21) in 2013.
By scoring five tries to two, and only conceding the second one after the final hooter, the Pretoria side moved to 28 points on the log.
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
- We have exciting news! We’re offering a free alert to help you always be in the loop. Send an email with the word ‘Subscribe’ to breakingnews@rekord.co.za to receive your free daily breaking news update.
