Staff Reporter.
The Scarlets fell victim to a rampant Vodacom Bulls performance as they suffered a 57-12 United Rugby Championship defeat in Pretoria.
The result lifts the Bulls to sixth in the overall table and top of the South African Shield ahead of the weekend’s remaining fixtures, while the Scarlets remain 12th.
Trailing 31-7 at the interval, Scarlets made the worst possible start to the second half after Ioan Nicholas was yellow-carded for taking out Madosh Tambwe, before Ruan Nortje ran the length of the pitch for a touchdown after a sneaky interception.
The Bulls gave Scarlets no time to settle as the men in blue hurtled upfield for one of the tries of the season, Johan Grobbelaar finishing off the first of his two tries on the night.
Marcell Coetzee capped off another sterling performance when the Bulls skipper exploited the tiniest of gaps for his second try of the match, with Rob Evans’ try at the death scarce consolation for Scarlets.
The Bulls struck as early as the third minute after Elrigh Louw surprised the defense off the back of a 5m scrum, before offloading to Canan Moodie out wide, with Chris Smith adding the extras.
Tambwe then unleashed the dangerous Kurt-Lee Arendse, who ran the distance to score, only for his effort to be disallowed on a TMO review. But Coetzee was not to be denied, as he powered over from close quarters for an unconverted five-pointer.
Cyle Brink nabbed the home side’s third try from a powerful driving maul, Smith again failing to convert, but he made no mistake to make it 22-0 after Grobbelaar crossed the whitewash.
Louw then added his name to the scoresheet, the No 8 finishing off in the corner after Tambwe was stopped short of the line, before Sione Kalamafoni dotted down for the visitors as the first half drew to a close.
Bulls: Kurt-Lee Arendse; Canan Moodie, Cornal Hendricks, Harold Vorster, Madosh Tambwe; Chris Smith, Zak Burger; Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar, Jacques van Rooyen, Walt Steenkamp, Ruan Nortje, Marcell Coetzee (capt), Cyle Brink, Elrigh Louw.
Replacements: Joe van Zyl, Simphiwe Matanzima, Robert Hunt, Reinhardt Ludwig, Arno Botha, Keagan Johannes, Morne Steyn, Lionel Mapoe.
Scarlets: Ioan Nicholas; Steff Evans, Johnny Williams, Scott Williams (capt), Ryan Conbeer; Rhys Patchell, Dane Blacker; Kemsley Mathias, Dafydd Hughes, Javan Sebastian, Sam Lousi, Jac Price, Aaron Shingler, Tomas Lezana, Blade Thomson.
Replacements: Shaun Evans, Rob Evans, Harri O’Connor, Morgan Jones, Sione Kalamafoni, Archie Hughes, Sam Costelow, Joe Roberts.