Steval Pumas outmuscled by powerful Bulls

Sep 12 • General News • 1474 Views • Comments Off on Steval Pumas outmuscled by powerful Bulls

The Steval Pumas will have to wait another week for a crack at Currie Cup success, after falling to a 41-14 loss against a powerful Vodacom Blue Bulls side at Mbombela Stadium on Saturday night.
The match was dominated by a typically strong showing from the Bulls forwards, who had the better of the home side at scrums and lineouts. This gave the Bulls backs plenty of freedom to express themselves with some exciting running rugby in open play.
The Steval Pumas couldn’t convert a five-metre scrum into points directly after their own kick-off, and the Bulls opened the scoring in the 7th minute as fullback Ulrich Beyers entered the backline and sliced through the defence. Flyhalves Francois Brummer and Tian Schoeman exchanged penalties to take the score to 10-3, and Brummer slotted two more to bring his side within a point of the visitors by the 34th minute.
Some resolute Steval Pumas defence eventually caved to a converted Travis Ismaeil try in the 36th minute, and Nic de Jager crashed over three minutes later to take the Bulls to a 24-9 halftime lead.
The visitors took that momentum into the second half, scoring their bonus point try early on through eighth man Hanro Liebenberg. Jamba Ulengo went over in the corner shortly afterwards. The home team couldn’t capitalise on several opportunities within their opponents 22, and had a Frank Herne try disallowed by the TMO. Ulengo had a clean run in for his second try in the 66th minute.
Having returned to the Steval Pumas squad after recovering from a thumb injury, replacement wing Ruwellyn Isbell injected some spark into the Mpumalanga side’s backline and dived over in the corner in the 70th minute, taking the final score to 41-14.
“We were definitely outplayed and outmuscled. We couldn’t get one set piece of our own and we couldn’t put their set piece under pressure, and that flowed through to the rest of our game. We tried hard at times and put some phases together, but on the night definitely not good enough,” said Steval Pumas coach MJ Mentz.
SCORERS:
Pumas: Try: Ruwellyn Isbell
Penalties: Francois Brummer (3)
Bulls: Tries: Ulrich Beyers, Travis Ismaiel, Nic de Jager, Hanro Liebenberg, Jamba Ulengo (2)
Conversions: Tian Schoeman (3), Joshua Stander
Penalty: Schoeman