In a match of two extreme halves on Saturday evening, the Bulls just managed to beat Munster of Ireland 29-24 at Loftus Versfeld, to advance to the tenth place on the United Rugby Championship (URC) tournament log. After their victory, in which they could not manage to score four tries for a bonus point, the Bulls are now just two places away from the top eight, who will be involved in the play-off phase of the tournament. Saturday’s game was the proverbial match of two diverse halves with the home team looking at half-time as if they would easily win with a bonus point, while the visitors dominated matters in the second half. At half time the Bulls were already 26-3 ahead after two excellent tries by Madosh Tambwe and Walt Steenkamp and four penalty goals by Chris Smith. However, the Irish fought back in the second half, while the Bulls’ unforced errors also did not help to protect their lead.

After Bismarck du Plessis received a red card for a reckless altercation with the visitors’ eighth man, Alex Kendellen, which caused Kendellen to land on his head, the Bulls were in trouble and on defence in the last ten minutes of the match. However, the men in Blue were able to bite the bullet and secure the much-needed victory. As things currently stand, the Bulls’ fate is still in their own hands to eventually end up among the top eight teams and thus qualify for the quarterfinals of the tournament. Marcel Coetzee and his teammates still have seven league fixtures left. Of these, five are home matches at Loftus Versfeld, while one will be played within the borders of South Africa against the Stormers in Cape Town. The Bulls will only travel to Europe for their last league game against Ospreys in Swansea, Wales. Depending on how the Sharks and the Stormers perform in their respective campaigns during this last stage of the tournament, the Bulls also have a chance to finish at the top of the South African group on the log. With the same number of games played, they are currently two league points behind the Stormers and four points behind the Sharks.  

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