Marcell Coetzee and his teammates had to work hard to achieve their goal of a bonus point victory, but in the end, they managed to beat the Glasgow Warriors 29-17 at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

The Bulls are making a habit of starting badly these days and Friday’s performance was no exception.

The Scottish side started the game at a huge pace and with a purposeful forward attack, which soon disturbed the Bulls’ rhythm.

Under this pressure, the home team made numerous unnecessary mistakes and before long the Warriors were over the goal line but could not get the ball on the ground. The controversial Georgian referee consequently decided to award a penalty try, while at the same time sending the Bulls’ number eight, Elrich Louw, off with a yellow card because he allegedly tried to stop the Scots’ driving movement illegally.

By the way, this referee was – just like last week in the game between the Sharks and Leinster – an embarrassment to the URC. He was totally out of his depth and the game could not flow at all, especially in the first half, because he handed out penalties like a clown would hand out lollipops at a children’s party. One could see how the players on both sides built up their frustration against the man’s clumsiness.

The Bulls were able to hit back immediately with a try basically from the kick-off after the visitors’ try.

This was followed by a boring hustle and bustle from one penalty to another for almost a half hour, before the Bulls could find a bit of rhythm towards the end of the first half to score their second try just before the break.

At half-time, the home team was thus 17-10 ahead.

After half-time, the Bulls managed to find more rhythm and consequently build momentum as well.

The forwards were more patient in the driving movements and fewer handling errors helped the home team to dominate ball possession. Consequently, the opportunities for tries also came and after about 25 minutes in the second half, the bonus point try was a reality.

In addition to the struggling of the referee, there was also controversy regarding the Television Referee, coincidentally Marius van der Westhuizen, a man who usually leaves his worst performances for Loftus Versfeld.  Or is it a coincidence that the Bulls are always on the wrong side of his decisions? It’s debatable.

Van der Westhuizen robbed the Bulls and Madosh Tambwe of a brilliant try. He judged that Tambwe was in front of the kicker (Lionel Mapoe) before he followed up on the latter’s grubber and controlled the ball brilliantly in little space to score.

The Bulls are now pretty sure of a place among the top eight, but there is hard work ahead if they ever dream of reaching a final or even a semi-final. They will have to play much more clinically and dramatically eliminate unnecessary mistakes for that dream to realize.

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