adminPretoria — Centre Jan Serfontein has earned a bonus point on the hooter for the Bulls as they claimed a first win of the Super Rugby season with a 43-35 victory over the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld yesterday. Springbok Serfontein powered over the line with the last play of the game to go with earlier tries for scrumhalf Francois Hougaard and loose-forwards Deon Stegmann and Pierre Spies.
Flyhalf Handré Pollard converted three of those and added four penalties with a perfect kicking performance, while his replacement, debutant Tian Schoeman, 23, added a conversion and penalty of his own.
The Sharks had number eight Ryan Kankowski and scrumhalf Cobus Reinach cross the line, but were only briefly in front in a game where they trailed 23-16 at half-time.
Pollard’s Springbok rival Pat Lambie, who has been criticised in the past for inconsistency with the boot, landed seven penalties and two conversions for a match haul of 25 points. — Sport 24
Teams:
Bulls
15 Jesse Kriel, 14 Bjorn Basson, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Francois Hougaard, 10 Handre Pollard 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Pierre Spies (captain), 7 Lappies Labuschagne, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Jacques du Plessis, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Morne Mellett
Substitutes: 16 Callie Visagie, 17 Dean Greyling, 18 Marcel van der Merwe, 19 Grant Hattingh, 20 Hanro Liebenberg, 21 Tian Schoeman, 22 Travis Ismaiel, 23 Jurgen Visser
Sharks
15. SP Marais, 14. Odwa Ndungane, 13. Waylon Murray, 12. Andre Esterhuizen, 11. Lwazi Mvovo, 10. Patrick Lambie, 9. Cobus Reinach, 8. Ryan Kankowski, 7. Renaldo Bothma, 6. Marcell Coetzee, 5. Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4. Lubabalo Mtyanda, 3. Jannie du Plessis, 2. Bismarck du Plessis (captain),
1. Dale Chadwick
Substitutes: 16. Kyle Cooper, 17. Thomas du Toit, 18. Lourens Adriaanse, 19. Marco Wentzel, 20. Jean Deysel, 21. Conrad Hoffmann, 22. Fred Zeilinga/Lionel Cronje, 23. Jack Wilson
Online Reporter