URC semifinal: Bulls beat Sharks – Four key talking points

The Bulls were on point in their massive United Rugby Championship (URC) semifinal against the Sharks, as they clinched a comfortable 25-13 win at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday night.

The hosts weathered an early storm, to take a 15-3 lead into the halftime break, and after a brief Sharks fightback in the second half, pulled away again to secure a third appearance in four URC Grand Final’s.

They will be heading over to Dublin to face Irish heavyweights Leinster, who they stunned in Ireland in the semifinals of URC one. Here are four key talking points from their win over the Sharks:

The scrum

The Bulls absolutely dominated the Sharks scrum over the match. From the first two scrums the hosts set the tone, Jan-Hendrik Wessels getting the hit on Vincent Koch with the first, and Wilco Louw getting it on Ox Nche with the second.

However they didn’t take full advantage in the first half, getting the ball out quick from a big scrum in their own 22m, only to almost concede after an intercept pass. But they did earn a penalty in the Sharks 22m later that Johan Goosen booted over to put them 15-3 up, which they took into halftime.

The second half was a much tighter scrum battle, as the Sharks got their act together and became more competitive, but the Bulls were still the better team and earned a late scrum penalty to see out the win comfortably.

Early turnaround

The Sharks thought they had gotten off to a dream start when the Bulls handed them an early try, after a huge scrum in their own 22m they got the ball out quickly and tried to run from their own line, David Kriel throwing an intercept for Ethan Hooker to intercept and score.

But the hosts were lucky, as the TMO spotted the whole Sharks backline offside at the scrum, to chalk off the score. That allowed the Bulls to go up the other end, thanks to a stunning break from Embrose Papier off a lineout, with Sebastian de Klerk brilliantly finishing it off to put them up 7-0.

De Klerk was again on hand to send a wonderful cross kick to Canan Moodie to score in the 21^st minute, after Jaden Hendrikse slipped trying to clear the ball on his own line, giving the Bulls a 12-3 lead, which they turned into 15-3 at the break.

Sharks comeback

It was a disastrous end to the first half for the visitors. The Bulls were handed three yellow cards, to Harold Vorster for cynical play, Cameron Hanekom for a tip tackle on Siya Kolisi, and Marcell Coetzee for pulling a maul down after a warning from the ref.

That saw them play with a man down from the 27^th minute and two men down from the 36^th to 46^th minutes. That allowed the Sharks to dominate the final few minutes of the half on the Bulls tryline but they couldn’t score.

However they bounced back at the start of the second half, utilising the two-man advantage as Makazole Mapimpi scored on the overlap, while Ethan Hooker also worked space out wide to go in at the corner bringing it back to 15-13, but that was as good as it got as the Bulls then pulled away.

Kicking woes

The Sharks could say they lost the match on the kicking tee after they saw a slew of shots at goal go wide of the mark over the game, with both Hendrikse brothers missing crucial attempts at poles. Jordan was the kicker in the first half.

He took three shots at goal from range, missing the first and third, while slotting the second. He also missed the conversion attempt from their first try in the second half, after which the Sharks changed kickers. But Jaden promptly missed his conversion attempt as well.

On the Bulls side Johan Goosen slotted a conversion and penalty in the first half, missing one conversion from the sideline, while Keagan Johannes nailed a penalty from an angle, missed one from the side, and converted from the sideline to give them an important 25-13 lead which the held to the end.