The Bulls beat the Western Force 32-29 despite being outscored by four tries to three in an enthralling Super 14 encounter in Pretoria on Saturday.
The Bulls took just three minutes to open their account with a penalty by flyhalf Morne Steyn.
The Australian side replied immediately when fullback Drew Mitchell scored under the posts after an excellent chip from Matt Giteau.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Springbok wing Bryan Habana then scythed through the Force defense to score near the posts and hand the initiative back to the home side.
Giteau’s penalty after 35 minutes made it 10-8 to the visitors but again the Bulls replied, prop Werner Kruger diving over from close range after a good build-up by the forwards.
The Bulls, in search of a four-try bonus point, stepped up a gear in the second half and were rewarded with their third try from fullback Zane Kirchner within a minute of the restart.
Steyn extended the lead to 16 points with two penalties but the visitors refused to give up and kept themselves in the match with a second try by Cameron Shepherd.
Steyn’s fourth penalty kept the visitors at bay but his yellow card for a dangerous charge galvanized the Force, who scored two tries in the dying minutes through Josh Tatupu and Ryan Cross to register a bonus point and come within one score of what would have been an astonishing victory.
Meanwhile, the Sharks beat the Otago Highlanders 23-15 in Durban to record their first win in three games.
The home side, coming off the back of two defeats and a bye, looked rusty against New Zealanders fighting to stay in the reckoning.
The Sharks opened the scoring in a scrappy first half with a 10th minute penalty by scrumhalf Rory Kockott.
The Highlanders replied almost immediately with a try by replacement hooker Jason Rutledge, converted by flyhalf Matthew Berquist, to make it 7-3.
The home side regained the lead in the 17th minute, when lock Steven Sykes barged over after a good break in midfield by winger JP Pietersen, and went 17-7 ahead 10 minutes later when a Berquist knock-on behind his own goal-line was pounced on by flanker Jacques Botes.
Berquist made partial amends when he slotted a 35th minute penalty that narrowed the deficit to a single converted try before scrumhalf Jimmy Cowan dived over on the stroke of half-time.
The second half was characterized by numerous handling errors and poor option taking, with both sides unable to string together enough phases to threaten the line.
Kockott added two penalties to extend the lead to eight points and make the game safe, but was then red-carded in the closing minutes for a punch on Highlanders flanker Adam Thomson.
The Sharks were further reduced to 13 men in injury time when replacement flanker Keegan Daniel was sin-binned for a trip, but the visitors were unable to convert the last-second penalty that would have given them a bonus point.
Meanwhile New Zealand’s Waikato Chiefs scored a late fourth try to snatch a bonus point and move a step closer to the Super 14 semi-finals with a 28-14 win over South Africa’s Stormers at Newlands on Saturday.
The Chiefs moved to second in the standings with two rounds to play. The Stormers, by contrast, slumped to their eighth loss of the season.
The Wellington Hurricanes top the standings with 39 points, two clear of the Chiefs ahead of next week’s meeting between the two New Zealand sides in Hamilton.
Although the Stormers dominated the opening exchanges, scoring the first try of the match through flyhalf Willem de Waal in the 16th minute, they spent the rest of the half on defense.
The Chiefs absorbed the early pressure and then started to command almost every aspect of the game, scoring twice before the break.
Flanker Liam Messam rounded off a sustained Chiefs attack with their first try of the match in the 24th minute.
The New Zealanders’ second came on the stroke of half-time through scrumhalf Toby Morland.
Center Richard Kahui burst away and made 50m before offloading to the supporting Morland for an easy canter under the crossbar.
The pair combined for the Chiefs’ third try in the 65th minute when Kahui again ran an excellent straight line before feeding Morland for his second.
Kahui then scored the bonus-point-scoring fourth try three minutes from the end.
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