Cape Town – The Bulls kept their hopes alive of hosting a Champions Cup playoff match by beating Bordeaux 46-40 in a 12-try thriller at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday afternoon.
Jake White’s team already advanced to the round of 16 on Friday night after Connacht beat Bristol 27-10 in Ireland, but they needed to get a win over Bordeaux to stay in the hunt for second place in Pool 1.
They managed to get a bonus-point victory after both sides scored six tries each, but will now have to wait until Saturday night’s late game between Saracens and Lyon in England for the final group standings.
Bordeaux cannot be surpassed as they have 17 points, with the Bulls on 15 and Lyon 12. That means Lyon only need a one-point win in north London on Saturday night to leapfrog the South African franchise.
The Bulls, though, will be disappointed with their defence in the second half after leading 40-21, following Embrose Papier’s try, as they allowed Bordeaux to grab three touchdowns after that to ensure a thrilling finish on a warm Pretoria afternoon.
The French side were truly feeling the heat as they brought out umbrellas during the water-breaks, but they couldn’t handle the intensity from the Bulls forwards in the first 50 minutes.
The likes of young No 8 Cameron Hanekom, hooker Jan-Hendrik Wessels and captain Marcell Coetzee climbed into the Bordeaux pack, who didn’t appear to want to get stuck into an arm-wrestle – with former Lions tighthead Carlü Sadie receiving a yellow card for his team’s repeated infringements.
That provided the Bulls with plenty of front-foot ball, and even after Hanekom was denied a second-minute five-pointer after losing control of the ball, Coetzee crossed the line soon after that.
Despite visiting fullback Romain Buros levelling matters with his own try in the 14th minute, the Bulls roared back as first wing Devon Williams danced over on the left, before Coetzee twisted his way through to make it 21-7.
Bordeaux lock Adam Coleman replied after the half-hour mark, but it was Player-of-the-Match David Kriel who claimed the bonus-point try after a superb offload by Stedman Gans to Willie le Roux, who put Kriel away to make it 26-14 at halftime.
Springbok fullback Le Roux finished off the best Bulls try of the day after the break, with Papier, Kriel and Elrigh Louw all pulling off some outstanding runs and offloads.
The French visitors hardly used their two blisteringly-quick wings, Madosh Tambwe and Louis Bielle-Biarrey, but they eventually realised that they needed to stretch the home side’s defence out wide.
Tambwe then scored against his former team, and even after Papier notched up the sixth Bulls try, Bordeaux never gave up the fight.
Replacement loose forward Tevita Tatafu grabbed a brace of his own as the Bulls started to slip off their tackles, which resulted in Jaco van der Walt having to slot two penalties to close out the victory.
Points-Scorers
Bulls 46 – Tries: Marcell Coetzee (2), Devon Williams, David Kriel, Willie le Roux, Embrose Papier. Conversions: Johan Goosen (5). Penalties: Jaco van der Walt (2).
Bordeaux 40 – Tries: Romain Buros, Adam Coleman, Madosh Tambwe, Tevita Tatafu (2), Paul Abadie. Conversions: Zack Holmes (4), Mateo Garcia (1).
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