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Hougaard's boot helps Bulls to win over ACT Brumbies

Flyhalf Derick Hougaard kicked 12 points for South Africa's Bulls as they beat the ACT Brumbies 19-7 in a Super 14 rugby match yesterday.

Hougaard slotted a conversion, three penalties and a dropped goal to boost the Bulls to a 19-0 half-time lead.

Unfortunately for the Bulls injury forced him from the match during a second half in which his team was held scoreless by the Australians.

No. 8 Pedrie Wanneburg scored the Bulls' only try from a lineout drive in the 33rd minute.

Otherwise, the match was dominated by the Bulls' defense which opened only once, to allow a try to Brumbies center Gene Fairbanks in the 46th minute.

The victory was the first by a South African side over the Brumbies in Canberra since 1998 and was hard-earned.

"We're very glad," Bulls captain Victor Matfield said.

"It's our first victory ever here over a great Brumbies side. I hope we can take a lot of confidence from this. It wasn't a great performance but we were very clinical in the first half and our defense held out," Matfield said.

The Brumbies had surpluses of possession and territory but suffered as they have throughout the season from an inability to score tries.

Their forward play was sound, they matched a much larger Bulls pack, but their backplay was one-dimensional and lacked sufficient depth or penetration.

The Brumbies tried desperately in the second half to create play but time and again promising movements broke down because of forced or inaccurate passing.

"We lost the game tonight," captain George Smith said.

"The turnovers we gave to them, especially in the first half, cost the game. You can't afford to give any team that much possession," he said./

Much of the Brumbies backline malaise stemmed from the halves where George Gregan and Julian Huxley turned in uninspired performances.

Gregan shunted the ball on mechanically from breakdowns without attacking the line and Huxley showed an inability to spark his outsides.

Players such as Smith turned up too often in the middle of the backline and forced passes that went to ground and caused turnovers.

The Bulls defended superbly throughout the second half. Though they were unable to score, they protected their line courageously and allowed only Fairbanks' try, when they were down to 14 men: little reward for the Brumbies' weight of possession.
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