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Ulster fade in Pretoria heat as Coetzee and Bulls go on the charge
By PA
Marcell Coetzee emerged as the chief tormentor of Ulster by blasting over for the crucial try against his old teammates as the Vodacom Bulls ran out 34-16 winners in Pretoria. Few thrills were produced in a first half dominated by the defences and the whistle of referee Andrea Piardi that allowed Nathan Doak to kick the Irish province into a 9-3 interval lead.
But in 25 degree heat at Loftus Versfeld, the Bulls then ignited with powerful flanker Coetzee crossing in the 44th minute to wrestle the advantage away from Ulster before Madosh Tambwe, Johan Grobbelaar and Kurt-Lee Arendse added further tries to complete a bonus-point victory.
A late yellow card for a dangerous tackle cast a minor shadow on Coetzee’s afternoon, but he had already left his mark on the side where he spent five seasons until 2021. Ulster lost wing Ethan McIlroy in the third minute after he took an elbow to the head from Tambwe as the rivals contested for an aerial ball, but it failed to dent a strong start from the visitors.
A Doak penalty was the only reward for their early dominance and the Bulls soon forced their way back into contention with Chris Smith levelling from the kicking tee. Defences reigned in an increasingly hard-fought first half that saw regular intervention from Piardi and with the Bulls coming off worse, Doak was able to boot another six points.
Only last-ditch intervention from Ian Madigan prevented Tambwe from crossing in the left corner, but where the backs failed the forwards succeeded when a series of pick-and-goes produced a try for Coetzee as the lead changed hands for the first time. Pressure was building on Ulster with Coetzee a force in the forward exchanges and when Smith kicked the Bulls 13-9 ahead, the tide had turned.
Tambwe showed strength to score his side’s second try born out of an error in the visitors’ midfield, but Marshall went over with 15 minutes to go after brave approach work from Madigan to hint at an uprising. Any comeback aspirations soon vanished, however, when lock Kieran Treadwell was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle and Bulls surged over with a maul try from hooker Grobbelaar.
Arendse completed the rout by picking off a loose Ulster pass, sealing an emphatic win.
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Latest Comments
Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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