Bulls …………….22
Edinburgh ……. 16
JACO van der Walt put in a pivotal performance against his former side as the Bulls opened their season with a dogged victory.
Openside Jannes Kirsten and wing Canan Moodie both scored as last season’s runners-up won an attritional game in sweltering conditions at Loftus Versfeld.
Edinburgh started brightly, frustrating the South Africans both at set-pieces and in the loose, and when tighthead Francois Klopper gave away Bulls sixth penalty on the 14th minute, new signing Ross Thompson rifled home from 45m.
Bulls hit back with two tries in four minutes. First Kirsten muscled over and then van der Walt dashed around Wes Goosen. Cam Hanekom saw yellow for offside and Edinburgh hooker Ewan Ashman capitalised from a short lineout before a Thompson penalty put them ahead 13-12.
TEAMS
BULLS: Kriel 7, Moodie 8, Gans 8, Barend Smit 5, De Klerk 6, Van der Walt 6 (Chamberlain 60, 5), Papier 6 (Johannes 56, 5); Tshakweni 5 (Matanzima 40, 6), Van der Merwe (c) 7 (Grobbelaar 51, 6), Klopper 5 (Smith 51, 5), Vermaak 6, Wiese 6 (Van Heerden 27, 5), Xaba 5 (Coetzee 56, 5), Kirsten 6.5 (Coetzee 30; Wiese 40), Hanekom 5
Not used: Dyantyi EDINBURGH: Goosen 5, Graham 5, Bennett 4 (McCann 15, 5), Scott 6, Van der Merwe 7, Thompson 9, Price 6 (Vellacott 51, 5); Schoeman 7 (Venter 56, 5), Cherry 4 (Ashman 6, 7), Hill 5 (Rae 52, 5), Sykes 6, Gilchrist (c) 6 (Hodgson 60, 5), Ritchie 8, Watson 6 (Dodd 66, 5), Bradbury 6 Not used: Healy
REFEREE: Ben Breakspear (Wal) ATTENDANCE: 5,500
Star player Ross Thompson -Edinburgh
Bulls loosehead Simphiwe Matanzim was binned for a scrum infringement on the hour mark, but a 50-22 provided a platform for Moodie to score before Boeta Chamberlain kicked a penalty. Ashman was sin-binned on the 70th minute for a no arms tackle and while a Duhan van der Merwe run forced a penalty for Thompson to convert, it was too little, too late.
Edinburgh coach Sean Everitt said: “It feels like an opportunity missed. We’re not happy with our performance, even if we’d got the result. Our accuracy and our execution let us down, which is disappointing.”
