Rugby
14-man Bulls taste first defeat─── MORGAN PIEK 08:25 Sat, 19 Oct 2024
“This competition is hard enough. If you’ve got 14 or 13 and at some stage even 12 players, which seems to be the trend now, not only for us but for a lot of teams, we’re going to have to find a way in which we negate that.”
The Bulls suffered their first defeat of the 2024/25 United Rugby Championship on Friday night after going down 23-22 to the Scarlets in Llanelli, Wales.
The match will also be remembered for the team from Pretoria going down to 14 men after the Springbok hooker, Johan Grobbelaar, was red carded for head-on-head contact against the former Cheetahs hooker, Marnus van der Merwe.
The incident occurred in the 66th minute. At that stage of the match, the Bulls were still leading 22-18.
It's déjà vu for the Vodacom Bulls in Wales ????
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It’s the second match in a row in which the Bulls received a red card after David Kriel was sanctioned against the Ospreys in Swansea last week. This red card would later be rescinded. The Grobbelaar card did appear to be harsh, but there was also head contact on Van der Merwe.
The Bulls tries were scored by Canan Moodie, Zak Burger, and Kurt-Lee Arendse, while Boeta Chamberlain landed two conversions and a penalty.
Josh Macleod, Blair Murray, and Tom Rodgers all managed to cross the whitewash for the Welsh outfit, while Ioan Lloyd landed a conversion and two penalties.
Following the match the Bulls coach, Jake White, lamented the red card which certainly swung the game. In the same breath, he did concede that they put themselves in a position which ultimately led to them suffering their first defeat.
“You can’t play with 14 people at this level,” said White after the match.
“You can’t play with 14 people away from home as well. You saw what happened with the Scarletts when they played Cardiff. It’s twice that they had to play with reduced numbers.
Tom Rogers. Photo: Scarlets
“This competition is hard enough. If you’ve got 14 or 13 and at some stage even 12 players, which seems to be the trend now, not only for us, but for a lot of teams, we’re going to have to find a way in which we negate that.
“But, saying that, there’s a massive push on head injuries and there’s a massive push for 20 minute red cards and there’s a lot of things that are happening behind the scenes.
“But again, I must reiterate, I can’t blame anybody other than ourselves for not finishing off what we started at the beginning of the game.”
Next Friday the Bulls will face Benetton in Treviso, Italy.
Scorers:
Scarlets: Tries – Josh Macleod, Blair Murray, Tom Rogers Conv. – Ioan Lloyd Pen. - Lloyd
Bulls: Tries – Canan Moodie, Zak Burger, Kurt-Lee Arendse Conv. - Boeta Chamberlain 2 Pen. - Chamberlain
OFM Sport/Morgan Piek dg
