URC Rugby, the Bulls move to Treviso 44-22

The Blue Bulls of Pretoria conquer Monigo, inflicting a 22-44 on Benetton Rugby which represents the first home defeat of the season. The second fraction played by Jake White’s men was decisive, who scored five goals between the beginning and the end of the second half, closing in the best possible way the three-game tour in Europe. A heavy stop instead for Treviso in view of playoff aspirations, considering that this week it will have to do without 18 athletes called up by Kieran Crowley in view of the meeting in Verona on 23 October.

First half

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The match opens with a short study phase, in which both teams try to impose their physicality with the forwards. To see the first action developed offshore you have to wait for the 4th minute, when Bellini finds space on the left, but the Bulls manage to recover the oval in the ruck. Cleaning at the meeting point that the South Africans failed a few minutes later, with Albornoz unlocking the score with a 12th place finish. Treviso begins to take measures to the opponents, but the game develops mainly in the middle of the field. Albornoz found another three points for the 6-0 in favor of Treviso, but Chris Smith shortened the score a few minutes later. On the following kick-off, Nicotera flies towards the meeting point, winning the third place of the evening for the Argentine opening that does not miss. The first part of the game therefore ends at 9-3 in favor of Benetton, apparently in control of the match.

Second half

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The certainties built by the lions in the first half collapse in less than five in the second half, with the Bulls reversing the score first with Smith’s foot, then with the action of Van Staden that sets the stage for Nortje’s easy goal, transformed again by Smith. Treviso responds once again with a placed from Albornoz, but it is clear how the boys of Jake White have entered with a different attitude. Louw closes a series of pick and go with a try under the posts, launching the Bulls at 12-20. Treviso is not there, and thanks to another kick in favor it immediately brings back the 5 opponents; the maul takes care of providing the perfect platform, while Manuel Zuliani is led by Duvenage to finish under the goalposts. To bring Treviso ahead at 57th is the usual southpaw of Albornoz, who takes advantage of a nonsense of the Bulls in the breakdown phase. The South African counter-overtake arrives exactly ten minutes later, again by Smith, replaced in the following action amid applause. The opening changes, not the result, because Morne Steyn brings the Bulls back into the Treviso 5. If the first attempt at the South African maul is controlled by the green-and-whites, the second is closed in goal by the newly entered Wessels, able to keep his balance near the sideline and crush the oval to the ground. Steyn’s transformation from a complicated position puts the Bulls over the break, effectively closing the match and condemning Treviso to their first home defeat. To put the exclamation point we think first Captain Coetzee, MVP of the match, and then Stravino Jacobs for the final 22-44.