United Rugby Championship: Vodacom Bulls 34 Ulster 16
ULSTER’S hopes of securing a top two finish took a massive hit on Saturday afternoon after the province fell to a crushing 34-16 defeat to the Vodacom Bulls in Pretoria.
At half-time, the sides turned round with Dan McFarland’s side leading 9-3, but a try from former Ulster favourite Marcel Coetzee four minutes after the restart proved to be a huge momentum swinger.
From this point the Bulls went on to dominate proceedings and secure a try scoring a bonus point win in the process.
Ulster did manage to bring themselves back into contention for a brief period midway through the second half when centre Luke Marshall stormed over for what turned out to be Ulster’s only try of the game. Nathan Doak’s conversion cut the Bulls lead to just four points, 20-16, and with 15 minutes remaining the game was again, delicately poised.
However, within two minutes the game turned on it’s head and for the second week in a row, it was due to a refereeing decision.
Kieran Treadwell was yellow carded for an apparent high tackle on the full back Kurt-Lee Arendse. But it was clear that the second row tackled in the chest area, making contact with the ball before shoulder made contact his opponent’s chin.
Commentating on the incident McFarland believes that if all match officials were to take the same point of view, then there will be an upsurge in yellow cards being issued.
“I personally don’t think it’s a yellow card," he said.
“He tackled the ball and come into very slight contact with the head. So, how many yellow cards are we going to see from now on if you make a legal tackle, a tackle that comes in at the right height, in the right place and then he manages to just touch the head.
“If they are all going to be yellow cards for now on, okay, that’s fine with me. But I expect to see that from everyone from now on."
To make matters worse, just seconds later the hosts were in for their third try when hooker Johan Grobbelarr went over. Morne Steyn kicked the conversion and within the blink of an eye, the Bulls had restored their 11-point advantage at 27-16.
After controlling much of the first half Ulster deservedly lead by six points at the break, and they were inches from going in nine ahead. Doak’s penalty with the last kick of the half just narrowly off target.
But a combination of a tough two weeks in South Africa, the altitude in Pretoria saw the energy and concentration levels of Ulster just drain away during the second period.
On his side’s second half showing McFarland said: “It was a tight game other than two errors by us in terms of the wayward pass and then the intercept at the end which was 14 points.
“They came out at the start of the second half. We knew they would come out hard. We missed a couple of tackles. They ended up scoring a try of the back of a scrum. And then we gave a penalty away and then the wayward pass.
“They were 20 points to nine up but even then, we got back into it. Really good play to get back to 20-16. And then the decision on the yellow card and that was sort of the game.”
The Bulls rounded off the scoring in the final minutes when Arendse picked off a pass from Doak to race clear from his own 22 to touchdown under the posts and confirm a fifth straight win for his side.
For Ulster, attention now turns to a double header with European champions Toulouse.
