It was the forwards that laid the platform but it was the Kurt-Lee Arendse X-factor that was the catalyst for an impressive Vodacom Bulls second-half surge that powered them to a 46-29 win over Benetton and a crucial haul of five log points at Loftus on Saturday.
Much of the talk in the build-up week to this 16th round Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash revolved around the need for the Bulls to avenge last year’s shock defeat in the Rainbow Cup final at the hands of these opponents in Treviso.
Sadly, on the morning of the game it became clear that the game would be about something quite different for the Bulls following the news of the tragic passing of former Springbok and Bulls loose-forward Pedrie Wannenburg in a motor accident in the USA.
There was a minute’s silence before the game and the Bulls captain Marcell Coetzee made it clear that the Bulls would be playing for a man he hero-worshipped as a young boy.
But the emotion didn’t get the Bulls quickly out of the starting blocks, and it was instead Benetton who dominated the initial stages before the Bulls’ old ally, the altitude, plus the slow poison of their direct forward approach, their lift in tempo and the effect of their counter-attacking game took toll on the Italians in the second half.
Arendse crossed for a brace of tries but it was his second try, the Bulls’ third, that was the killer blow for the visitors.
Still leading 19-15 as the game headed beyond the 50th minute, Benetton were on the attack when a wild pass saw the ball go to ground well inside the Bulls’ half.
With most other players there wouldn’t have been much danger to the Italian team that far out, but Arendse is different – his pace means that give him just a modicum of space and he is gone.
The moment he picked up the ball the try was certain even though he had 60 metres to run. The conversion made it 22-19 and although Benetton did draw pack with a penalty, skipper Coetzee wriggled his way over for the fourth try, the bonus point try, to put some daylight between the teams on the scoreboard.
The win propels the Bulls back up the log with games against Glasgow Warriors (home) and Ospreys to come.
The second half was impressive but it wasn’t a perfect performance for the Bulls who made too many mistakes in the first 50 minutes of play and they struggled to get into the game in the first half.
Perhaps what those of us who expected the Bulls to win at a canter forget is that while, like all the northern teams in the URC, the Italian teams will be new to playing at altitude, they wouldn’t be scared of playing in the sunshine.
They do a lot of that back in Treviso (and in Zebre’s case Parma) in the late summer or early spring, and last year’s Rainbow Cup decider was played in temperatures of more than 30 degrees Celsius.
Benetton certainly looked at home when they got their kicking game working early on, with their captain, former Stormers scrumhalf Dewaldt Duvenhage, excelling in that regard.
They disrupted the Bulls at the breakdown, like the Stormers did in Cape Town two weeks ago, and it contributed to making the Bulls look decidedly lacklustre for most of the first half.
While it seemed the Bulls lacked ambition, Benetton’s South African flyhalf Rhyno Smith, playing outside countryman Duvenage, excelled.
Apart from his excellent place-kicking, with his first penalty putting the visitors up 3-0 after seven minutes, his tactical play was good.
His eye for an opportunity also came through when he took a quick tap penalty that set up the first Benetton try, with centre Tommaso Menoncello profiting from a botched intercept attempt from Bulls wing Madosh Tambwe by kicking through and dotting down.
The conversion from Smith put the Italian team 10-0 up after 12 minutes and then the self-same Smith (actually both starting flyhalves had the surname of Smith) kicked another penalty a few minutes after that to stretch the lead to 13-0.
Cyle Brink then scored the Bulls’ first try not long after the first scrum of the game in the 24th minute, with the five pointer coming off a switch of direction from Bulls flyhalf Chris Smith, with lock Ruan Nortje, who was impressive across the entire 80 minutes, powering through a gap before Brink went over in the left corner.
The Bulls’ Smith hit the post with the conversion so when namesake Rhyno Smith kicked another penalty for Benetton, it was 16-5 to Benetton, with the Bulls striking back with what at the time looked like being a crucial try to Kurt-Lee Arendse on the stroke of halftime to cut the deficit to just four points (16-12).
Benetton’s Nicolle Cannone was red carded for a swinging arm with nine minutes of the match remaining, but it had no material impact on the result as the match was already won by the Bulls by then.
Meanwhile Irish side Connacht made it three wins against SA teams in three games as they used luck and a very lenient referee to beat the Emirates Lions 33-30 on Saturday.