Bulls fall short against impressive Stormers in Cape Town

The Pretoria side ran in three tries to the four of their hosts as both sides set the stadium alight in front of some 30 000 fans.

Little separated the two outfits until half-time, with the visiting Bulls holding their own as they fielded 14 men for a period of 20 minutes as both Marco van Staden and Elrigh Louw served time in the sin bin.

Van Staden was shown yellow for a clash of the heads whilst teammate, Louw was adjudged to have collapsed the maul.

At the resumption of play, the hosts opened their lead – to 34-13 – with three successive converted tries.

But Bulls director of rugby Jake White said he was encouraged by the display, and called for patience as the side continues to evolve through match experience.

“To play for 20 minutes (in the first half) with just 14 men and stay in the game showed character but we perhaps looked a little bit inexperienced at times looking at some of our actions,”

“We are inexperienced in the sense that we still have a lot of growing to do. For example, the decision-making in how we decided one move over the next, which options to take at different moments of the game. Whereas they have experienced players (age and matches) and they have the most experienced coaching staff in the whole competition – having been together for the last 8 years and that showed,”

“We are really a young team in its development stages at the moment, but that does not take away from the sting of losing by four tries to three, but this is why we have long-term signings, to make sure that this squad grows and gels together as we go.”

Asked about his squad composition and whether or not the result warrants some changes, White re-affirmed that he is content with the crop of players available to him.

“These are the best group of players that I have and I will not kick them out just because they had one or two errors. Cape Town is tough and they (Stormers) are a good team, defending champions.”