The Bulls have defeated the Melbourne Rebels 32-17 at AAMI Park in Melbourne on Friday night.
The home side won at home last week by six points over Australian rivals, the Reds. Sitting one point behind the first-placed Brumbies, they had an opportunity to reclaim top spot on the Australian conference with the ACT side on the bye. The Bulls, on the other hand, were coming off a demoralising 45-13 loss to the Crusaders in Pretoria last week.
In front of a modest crowd in Melbourne, the Rebels were first to strike through former rugby league player, Marika Koroibete.
After multiple phases of pressure in the Bulls’ half, including an amazing stat of 100per cent possession in the first seven minutes, Quade Cooper eventually broke the line. He offloaded to Dane Haylett-Petty who was brought down just under five metres out.
Marika Koroibete saw an opportunity and ran just on the outside of Haylett-Petty, who popped it up to the winger who dove over for the try. Cooper added the extras and the home side had a seven-nil lead inside ten minutes.
But from the restart, Rob Leota dropped it cold and when his teammates in front picked it up, referee Federico Anselmi penalised the Rebels for offside. The Bulls camped themselves inside the Rebels half before earning a penalty advantage.
With this safety net, Kieron Pollard put in a neat cross-field kick to right-winger Cornal Hendricks who was unmarked in the corner. The sharp-shooter, Pollard, kicked the conversion to level the scores.
The Bulls then scored again just four minutes later when Pollard added more points to his name.
The elusive Rosco Specman burst down the left-hand touchline and some clean ball-skills saw the visitors maintain possession inside the Rebels’ 22. At first receiver, Pollard ran at the line and with Specman looming up on the inside, defender Matt Philip picked the wrong option.
This left Pollard with a gaping hole in which he strolled through for the easiest of tries. He then converted his own try to give the Bulls a seven point lead after eighteen minutes.
Nine minutes later, a box kick was put up by the Bulls and the chasers knocked the ball back, straight into the hands of Hugh Roach. He handed it to youngster, Jack Maddocks, who loped along the left touchline. He was tackled but found Will Genia who was running a beautiful channel and skipped away for an opportunistic try. Cooper missed the tough conversion.
The Bulls managed to extend their lead before halftime when Pollard knocked over a penalty kick from just over forty metres out. The score at half-time, 17-12 in favour of the visitors.
The chat in the break must have worked for the hosts as they burst out of the blocks in attacking fashion.
In the 43rd minute, quick hands found Jermaine Ainsley on the left who was brought down inches from the line. Koroibete found himself at scrum half and he crashed over from short-range to bag his second of the night. Cooper’s conversion was rejected by the post and the scores sat at 17 points apiece.
It was another fifteen minutes until the scores changed, largely thanks to some Specman brilliance.
Pollard threw a flat ball across the face to Specman who broke down the left wing on the halfway line. He chipped and chased his own kick and regathered before pulling up and pivoting around his defender.
An extraordinary overhead pass by the Sevens player then found inside centre Burger Odendaal who enjoyed a free run to the line to score the Bulls’ third of the night. Pollard’s conversion made it 24-17.
The Rebels fought desperately to get back in the game but more Specman magic put the match to bed. Again deep in the home side’s ‘red-zone’, a long, wide pass from Warrick Gelant found Specman on the left-wing who put in a big dive and celebration for the cameras as he dotted down for a well-deserved five-pointer. Pollard could not kick the conversion.
A further three points from the boot of Pollard made it 32-17 and that was how it finished. The Bulls securing their first win outside of South Africa since 2016.
The Bulls travel down to Canberra to take on the Brumbies who will be fresh coming off the bye next week.
The Rebels will be bitterly disappointed with the performance after the win over the Reds last week. They travel to Tokyo to take on the unpredictable Sunwolves in a Saturday afternoon clash.
jonty23
Guest
Could add Matt Phillip to that list also Waxhead, been solid all season .
Charlie Turner
Guest
Yeah who'd a thought the Brumbies could win games with a lowly Australian grown and developed coach. I mean the blokes from (north) Queensland ffs, never played for All Blacks or any other international side and wouldn't know a pair of Donna Karen jeans form a pair of King Gee's. I suppose coaching club footy in Ireland, Brisbane and Canberra then serving as an assistant in Japan and SXV for a few years was a reasonable apprenticeship.
Oblonsky‘s Other Pun
Roar Guru
Tough for the Rebs without Coleman, Jones and Naisarani to be fair. Excited for the Brumbies next year if White comes home and Lilo re-signs for another season.
Cadfael
Roar Guru
The most disappointing aspect was that the Rebels had both possession, territory and penalty count. I thought the score actually flattered the Rebels. Apart from the Brumbies when they are allowed to play their forwards game none of our sides look up to scratch. Players seem to be just moved around rather than looking at new blood, they seem to look for the newbies through the NRC with players in the franchise locked in because they are on contracts rather than being the best in their positions rather than new blood coming in. What can we do about it? For a start, with the Brumbies appearing to be the only ones capable of making the finals, start blooding some new players. There are players in both Sydney and Brisbane club footy who couldn't do any worse than some of our highly paid SR players. Give them a chance. Enough for my rant, I'm off to hopefully find a sausage sanger at my voting place.
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
“Genia ...........needs to have a decent pack of forwards in front of him and ref’s that keep an eye on the off-side line.” Yes BF, and only one of those things are controllable. And that control diminishes with injuries, as it did last night. Philip I think, as the pack ‘grunter’ simply had too much to do. All in all I was mildly satisfied by what I saw. Rebels are hunting for gold not just a finals berth. Meakes’ stocks are rising purely on consistency and tackles that stick. And our stocks as pro bono selection consultants are looking good if sanity prevails and sees a national squad built around Brumbies forwards, Rebels backs, Kerevi and Rodda.
Charlie Turner
Guest
I always felt Gordon looks more like a 10 than a 9.
Bluesfan
Genia has his bad games but he is class - remember how he played against the AB's in Dunedin couple of years ago, he was superb. As far as Penenara goes - saw him live for the first time last week playing against the Blues - he was superb in some factets of the game however his passing at time was horrendious - very inaccurate on the pass and personally think it was one of the reasons we lost against the Boks last year in Wellington - where when he came on his passing was poor. This is why Smith is just so much better than him.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
I’m assuming they’d need to win 3 of their last 4 to make the 8.
Pinetree
Roar Rookie
The Rebels also have to beat the Chiefs in Melbourne, and beat the Tahs who have had 3 consecutive wins vs the Rebels. If they fail to do that, they will most likely miss out on the top 8.
Highlander
Guest
Brums gotta be favourites to top the Aus comp I think
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
They’re halfbacks knackers!
Waxhead
Roar Rookie
@Bluesfan So many Aussies over-rate our players imo. If Genia played behind a great NZ pack he’d still kick poorly and be a road hump in defence. He’s nowhere near the class of Smith or Perenara and I’m not sure he’s better than Brad Weber from the Chiefs either so he’d be no chance of making the ABs squad. People seem to forget why WBs are ranked no 6 in the world atm with Scotland breathing down our necks. WBs only have 2 world class players and 1 of them has just been sacked. The other is injured and is played out of position when he’s fit.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
The Rebels were going forward a lot though. He seems to be stopping a lot of go forward at times.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Current form? This season has been so inconsistent it’s hard to base any forecast on past results against other teams.
Bobby
Roar Rookie
Possibly Tate, Jake or even Joe. They certainly wouldn't have been worse.
Bobby
Roar Rookie
For all the hype about Genia he plays some poor to average games. Most other halves would have better than him last night. When he's good, he's very good but that is becoming rarer. He definitely needs a go forward , forward pack as they all do. Too many people view him through rose coloured glasses.
Bluesfan
Rebels will be doing well to only lose by 20 odd points vs Cruaders based upon current form. I oringally had them losing to the Crusaders but beating the Chiefs in final game of the round robin - currently and dependent upon injury issues for the Chiefs - would be favoring the Chiefs. Brumbies will be the top team for Oz and will be mighty hard to beat at home.
Bluesfan
Genia is quality, however he needs to have a decent pack of forwards in front of him and ref's that keep an eye on the off-side line. Would be very happy to see him available for the AB's - as personally consider he would be in the mix with Smith and TJ - with Smith being the best by a country mile due to his pass. Imagine what Genia would do behind Crusader/AB Pack?
Charlie Turner
Guest
Would any other Australian fly half have made a winning difference last night? Rob Leota spilling the restart after the first Rebels try was as costly error leading to a soft Bulls try.
Charlie Turner
Guest
Cooper had a good game but if he wants a serious crack at the Wallabies he need to improve his place kicking. We've got an ex Scottish international at our club coaching kicking and he is always stressing the importance of set up and trajectory. He tells our kickers to try to keep the ball flight lower than or close to the top of the posts and uses Quade as an example of what not to do. Apparently using kicking tees is not as simple as it looks.