Northward bound: Still the right move for South African rugby?
So the dust has settled on the inaugural United Rugby Championship tournament, with the Stormers celebrating a deserved first championship win over the Bulls…
The Western Force’s losing streak extended to seven matches after copping a 42-20 hiding from the Bulls in Friday night’s Super Rugby clash at nib Stadium in Perth.
Inside centre Jan Serfontein and hooker Adriaan Strauss each bagged two tries in the five tries-to-two rout in front of 9247 fans.
Force skipper Matt Hodgson produced yet another Herculean effort in defence, and he was also rewarded with a first-half try.
But it was to no avail as the Bulls unleashed a second-half barrage – piling on 24 points before teh Force scored a try with the last play of the game – to secure the bonus-point win.
The result left the Force with just one win ahead of next week’s clash with the Sunwolves in Tokyo.
The Bulls have six wins and a draw from eight games, and they’ll be aiming to further cement their status as a title contender when they take on the Brumbies in Canberra next week.
The Force trailed 18-13 at halftime, and they looked threatening early in the second half.
But a yellow card to substitute Brynard Stander in the 53rd minute for pulling down a maul spelt the end of the Force’s hopes.
Less than a minute after Stander’s exit, Serfontein spun between two tacklers to notch his second try.
And the floodgates opened from that point on, with the Bulls scoring another two tries to secure the bonus point.
Substitute Kyle Godwin scored a try after the final siren, but it was little consolation to the Force.
Free-flowing rugby was the theme of the night in the opening half, with the highlight being an 80m try to the Bulls in the 23rd minute.
Fullback SP Marais started the audacious play, slipping on the turf just 15m from his own try line before shaking off Ian Prior’s tackle to send the Bulls forward.
A series of quick passes and sprints got the Bulls into their attacking half, before Serfontein found a gap to race towards the line.
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