The Vodacom Bulls cruised past Aviron Bayonnais with a 29-15 win to secure their place in an EPCR Challenge Cup quarter-final against Edinburgh next weekend.
The Vodacom Bulls led 15-08 at the halftime break, playing a conservative gameplan with a lot of patience, striking when the opportunity presented itself. The Bulls continued on their way as they did in the first half to secure a 29-22 win.
Baptiste Germain, Aviron Bayonnais scrumhalf, converted an early penalty to which Keagan Johannes replied after fourteen minutes of play to level the scores.
From the kick-off, the Bulls set up camp in the Aviron Bayonnais half, and eventually, clever passing and interplay by the Bulls backline led to Sergeal Petersen scoring a well-worked try. Johannes missed the conversion, however, the Bulls led 08-03.
Aviron Bayonnais was patiently building their onslaught on the Bulls' tryline, and eventually, inside centre Federico Mori scored a great try in the corner with Keagan Johannes on his back to level the scores on 08-08 with seven minutes still to play.
With a minute to play, Zak Burger offloaded to Reinhardt Ludwig, who ran a brilliant line to score the Bulls' second try. Keagan Johannes added the extra two points to extend the Bulls' lead to 15-08, which was also the halftime score.
The Bulls started the second half like a house on fire, showing that they were extremely dangerous on the counterattack. A grubber by Stravino Jacobs was eventually controlled by David Kriel to score in the corner, extending the Bulls lead to 22-08 after Johannes converted.
Four minutes later, flanker Rémi Bourdeau scored Aviron Bayonnais' second try to cut the Bulls' lead to 22-15 after eight minutes of play in the second half.
A yellow card was shown to Akker van der Merwe, which led to the hosts piling on the pressure for an extended time. However, the Bulls absorbed the pressure and eventually were rewarded for their patience on the attack when Marco van Staden bulldozed his way over the tryline to extend the Bulls' lead to 29-15.
With five minutes to play, Aviron Bayonnais attacked down the middle, and Tom Spring scored their third try to cut the visitors' lead to 29-22, which was the final score.
Scorers:
Aviron Bayonnais: Try: Federico Mori, Aviron Bayonnais, Tom Spring. Conversion: Tom Spring, Cheikh Tiberghien. Penalty: Baptiste Germain.
Vodacom Bulls: Tries: Sergeal Petersen, Reinhardt Ludwig, David Kriel, Marco van Staden. Conversion: Keagan Johannes (2), Johan Goosen. Penalty: Keagan Johannes.
Teams:
Aviron Bayonnais: 15 Cheikh Tiberghien, 14 Nadir Megdoud, 13 Arnaud Erbinartegaray, 12 Federico Mori, 11 Xan Mousques, 10 Tom Spring, 9 Baptiste Germain, 8 Giovanni Habel-Kuffner (c), 7 Rémi Bourdeau, 6 Noa Traversier, 5 Alex Moon, 4 Veikoso Poloniati, 3 Tevita Tatafu, 2 Lucas Martin, 1 Pierre Castillon. Replacements: 16 Vincent Giudicelli, 17 Martin Villar, 18 Pieter Scholtz, 19 Denis Marchois, 20 Lucas Paulos, 21 Baptiste Chouzenoux, 22 Baptiste Tilloles, 23 Aurélien Callandret.
Vodacom Bulls: 15 Devon Williams, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 David Kriel, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Stravino Jacobs, 10 Keagan Johannes, 9 Izak Burger, 8 Marcell Coetzee (c), 7 Jannes Kirsten, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 JF van Heerden, 4 Reinhardt Ludwig, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Armand van der Merwe, 1 Simphiwe Matanzima. Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Alulutho Tshakweni, 18 Mornay Smith, 19 Ruan Nortjé, 20 Cameron Hanekom, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Johan Goosen, 23 Stedman Gans.
