Jan-Hendrik Wessels Springbok front-rower Jan-Hendrik Wessels made a big difference off the bench for the Bulls against Leinster on Saturday. Photo: BackpagePix
Image: BackpagePix
Bulls coach Jake White hailed David Kriel’s temperament and the last-gasp scrum effort that won them the game against Leinster – but added that he would not be “not sweeping anything under the table”.
The Pretoria side looked like they would lose their second consecutive match at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday evening as they were 17-6 down early in the second half.
But the replacement front row of Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Johan Grobbelaar and Mornay Smith led the fight-back as the Bulls ground out a 21-20 win to go back up to third spot on the United Rugby Championship log.
Those three big men produced the scrum of their lives right at the end to win a penalty between the 10-metre and 22-metre lines.
Then centre Kriel stepped up to stroke the ball between the uprights to secure an unlikely victory and end Leinster’s 12-match unbeaten run.
But the Bulls were on the back foot throughout, despite trailing only 10-6 at halftime following two Keagan Johannes penalties in response to a Jordie Barrett try and Ross Byrne penalty.
There was a series of knock-ons with ball-in-hand, panicky decision-making and poor discipline that saw them concede unnecessary penalties.
There was also a straight red card to wing Sebastian de Klerk for taking out a Leinster player in the air, and a rather unlucky yellow card to prop Alulutho Tshakweni for a dangerous grass-cutter tackle.
“Credit to them, because that’s part of the Bulls priding themselves on their set-piece. Today, let’s be fair: our set-piece was outstanding,” White said after the match.
“Yes, it was against a Leinster team that didn’t have all their internationals, but still, that is a great effort for us.
“We needed a scrum penalty in the last play of the game, and they needed to put the ball in and out, and the kick the ball out.
“And after two resets, we managed to get the penalty on the third scrum.
“I told them I just want to see you desperate to get a result for 80 minutes. We had to win to stay in the top four, and even with 14 men, we found a way to win.
“But I’m not going to condone red cards, yellow cards, stupidity... Because when we get to the knockout stages, we will lose those games.
“The maul try and the yellow card... There is a lot of effort in that. You know how tired you get when you have maul, scrum, maul, scrum.
“I’m proud of the way they fought, and the bench came on and made an impact. But I’m also not sweeping anything under the table.
“We need to be more smart. We can’t be stupid and think that we are going to get to the back-end of the competition and win it if we don’t make better decisions in those situations.
“It’s stupid things, stupid – unbelievably stupid. New Zealanders talk about game smartness, and I think that it is the bottom line.
“You’ve got to understand where you are on the field, what the score is, what your job is...
“That smartness is also something a player has to learn. You can’t coach him every single thing about his role.
“I just said to the players now that we’ve won games like this one where we could’ve lost, and lost games that we should’ve won.
“And the reality is that it’s just because of our own actions. Four times we’ve given penalties away for playing the nine – three of those were yellow cards.
“Today, we play the guy in the air: red card. You take everything away from the effort the other guys put in to get back in the game.”
The Bulls clawed their way back through a penalty try from a driving maul, and then Grobbelaar dotted down from another lineout drive.
But after the monster scrum, Kriel showed his class to once again slot a late goal-kick to win it for the Bulls, like he did against Benetton in Treviso last year.
“I’m happy for him. As a goal-kicker, those kind of things can add scars if you miss it,” White said.
“But we were better tonight than needing a late penalty to win.
“He’s on over 80 or 100 games, and he’s gold for us. He marked a top backline, and has been playing really good rugby.”
Points-Scorers
Bulls 21 – Tries: Penalty Try, Johan Grobbelaar. Penalties: Keagan Johannes (2), David Kriel (1).
Leinster 20 – Tries: Jordie Barrett, Andrew Osborne. Conversions: Ross Byrne (2). Penalties: Byrne (2).