The Exeter Chiefs will leave Loftus Versfeld feeling battered and bruised, but also as if they were mugged in the second half as the Bulls hammered them 39-28 in their Champions Cup match on Saturday night.
A tightly-contested first half saw the Bulls only take a 20-14 lead thanks to a try just before the break by lock Ruan Vermaak, who picked up at the base of a ruck and dived over. The Bulls were deep inside the Exeter 22 thanks to captain Ruan Nortje’s brilliant understanding of the rules, spotting that an Exeter player had broken his bind at a maul, pointing out to referee Mathieu Raynal, and he and eighthman Elrigh Louw then swamped scrumhalf Sam Maunder to win the penalty and territory.
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Exeter then conceded another try just three minutes into the second half, and they looked unfortunate to not have a wild pass by hooker Johan Grobbelaar ruled forward by the TMO. What followed afterwards was sheer brilliance though from outside centre Wandisile Simelane as he got a boot to the loose ball, jumped up and juggled then controlled the bounce, before dashing over for the try.
Scoring 12 points in the five minutes either side of halftime gave the Bulls a 27-14 lead and Exeter would only have felt more hard done by when outside centre and captain Henry Slade was harshly red-cared for a high tackle on Kurt-Lee Arendse, who was ducking and the initial contact was on the shoulder.
In between, there had been a change of referee as Raynal went off with a strained hamstring, replaced by fellow Frenchman Thomas Charabas, who immediately awarded the Bulls a scrum penalty, Grobbelaar scoring from the lineout maul.
Full of beans
Although Exeter did score another two tries to claim what could be an important bonus point, they were nowhere near as full of beans as they had been in the first half. When centre Solomone Kata’s tap-on in midfield went straight to Simelane, no-one had the energy to stop him running in a 60-metre try to seal the victory for the Bulls.
It was a far cry from the first half, when they went toe-to-toe with the Bulls in a real arm-wrestle.
The Bulls defended brilliantly in the first 10 minutes to keep Exeter out, and then opened the scoring after winning a scrum penalty and eighthman Elrigh Louw going over from a tap-and-go after a maul penalty.
Exeter struck back soon afterwards as wing David Kriel isolated himself in defence, allowing fullback Josh Hodge to get outside him and race through for the try.
The best try of the match came in the 25th minute as a classic Bismarck du Plessis turnover was followed by a superb breakout as Arendse found space, passed out wide to Simelane, who then passed inside for Kriel to score.
But Exeter again replied, with Kata scoring after a patient rolling maul.
Joe Simmonds’ conversion meant they were just one point behind as halftime loomed, but then they fell away.
Scorers
Bulls – Tries: Elrigh Louw, David Kriel, Ruan Vermaak, Wandisile Simelane (2), Johan Grobbelaar. Conversions: Chris Smith (2), Johan Goosen. Penalty: Smith.
Exeter Chiefs – Tries: Josh Hodge, Solomone Kata, Jannes Kirsten, Dafydd Jenkins. Conversions: Joe Simmonds (2), Harvey Skinner (2).
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