The Vodacom Bulls launched their 2026/27 United Rugby Championship campaign with an emphatic, bonus-point statement, dismantling Zebre Parma 47-13 at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in Italy.
Zebre Parma flew out of the blocks, dominating the opening 13 minutes, using their tactical kicking game to pin the Bulls deep in their own territory. Flyhalf Tommaso Allan slotted a penalty to reward his side's early intent and break the deadlock.
The subsequent 12 minutes descended into a brutal, error-strewn slugfest as handling errors and unforced mistakes disrupted both teams.
The tactical breakthrough came in the 26th minute when the Bulls' heavy artillery rumbled into Zebre's red zone. A collapsed driving maul forced the referee to award a penalty try to the Bulls, while Zebre lock Matteo Canali was shown a yellow card for the infraction.
Allan responded almost immediately with his second penalty of the afternoon, narrowing the deficit to just one point at 7-6.
The Bulls hit back almost immediately with a devastating piece of attacking symmetry in the 32nd minute. Reinhardt Ludwig ran a brilliant line to pierce the midfield defence and crash over, with Curwin Bosch converting.
Disaster struck for the hosts just before halftime when Paul de Wet intercepted an attacking Zebre pass on his own 10-meter line. The scrumhalf showed blistering pace to slide under the posts for a 50-meter solo try, pushing the halftime score to 21-6.
The Pretoria outfit ruthlessly closed out any hope of an Italian comeback directly from the second-half restart. A punishing rolling maul splintered the Zebre defence, allowing the ball to be spun wide for Ruan Vermaak to bulldozer his way over.
The attacking bonus point was secured in the 51st minute through clinical, multi-phase pressure. Harold Vorster was unleashed on the outside, strolling over completely untouched to hand Bosch an easy conversion.
Zebre refused to capitulate and manufactured a brilliant consolation score through their captain, Alessandro Fusco. The scrumhalf sniped dangerously off the back of a powerful five-meter maul to dot down, with Allan converting.
The Bulls reasserted their dominance late in the second half when Ludwig picked a sharp line off the base of a ruck to bag his second try. Willie le Roux stepped up to convert from the tee, taking the score out to 42-13.
Zebre's afternoon completely unravelled in the 82nd minute when Sergio Pelliccioli was yellow-carded. Zak Burger put the final exclamation mark on the victory, collecting a "chicken-wing" pass from Janco Uys to cross the whitewash, securing a 47-13 bonus-point win.
Scorers:
Zebre Parma: Tries: Alessandro Fusco. Conversion: Tommaso Allan. Penalties: Tommaso Allan.
Vodacom Bulls: Tries: Penalty try, Reinhardt Ludwig (2), Paul de Wet, Ruan Vermaak, Harold Vorster, Zak Burger. Conversions: Curwin Bosch (4), Willie du Plessis.
Teams:
Zebre Parma: 15 Tommaso Allan, 14 Mirko Belloni, 13 Giulio Bertaccini, 12 Damiano Mazza, 11 Simone Gesi,10 Giacomo Da Re, 9 Alessandro Fusco (c), 8 Giovanni Licata, 7 Samuele Locatelli, 6 Giacomo Ferrari, 5 Leonard Krumov, 4 Matteo Canali, 3 Juan Ignacio Castellano, 2 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 1 Federico Pisani. Replacements: 16 Francisco Minervino, 17 Sergio Pelliccioli, 18 Filippo Alongi, 19 Franco Carrera, 20 Davide Ruggeri, 21 Thomas Dominguez, 22 Marco Zanon, 23 Giovanni Montemauri
Vodacom Bulls: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Sebastian de Klerk, 13 Stedman Gans, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Stravino Jacobs, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Jeandre Rudolph, 7 Hanro Liebenberg, 6 Marcell Coetzee (c), 5 Reinhardt Ludwig, 4 Ruan Vermaak, 3 Francois Klopper, 2 Juann Else, 1 Alu Tshakweni. Replacements: 16 Janco Uys, 17 Dylan Smith, 18 Mornay Smith, 19 JF van Heerden, 20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Zak Burger, 22 Cheswill Jooste, 23 Hakeem Kunene.