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Final quarter costly for Bulls as they go down to Warriors

rugby24 October 2025 21:50
By:Brenden Nel
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A poor final quarter, when they lost the referee, cost the Vodacom Bulls a chance of ending off their Vodacom United Rugby Championship tour with a win as they slumped to a 21-12 loss against Glasgow Warriors in the Scottish city on Friday night.

A crucial decision - a knock on that cost a try - and then conceding a penalty try shortly afterwards was the death knell for the Bulls as the 14 point turnaround ended their hopes as they looked to have control of the game, but surrendered it within moments to the home side and never recovered.

They then lost referee Craig Evans, who heavily penalised them in the final minutes of the contest, and with it lost the chance to take home points from their final game on tour.

But while the night was a disappointment, the Bulls looked better on defence for large parts of the game, held out the Glasgow attack - which is statistically the best in the competition, and counter-punched when it was needed to keep themselves in the game.

MISSED DECISIONS

Evans missed a number of decisions, including a bad cleanout in Glasgow’s final try, a neck roll and other incidents, but unfortunately the Bulls have to accept that as part of the process.

In the first half, with only 30 percent of the ball, the Bulls did incredibly well to go into the break just two points behind and were ahead at one point.

Had Kurt-Lee Arendse’s try been awarded, it would have put them on the road to a remarkable victory against a Glasgow side that had everything going for them.

But it wasn’t and Glasgow scored three minutes later via a penalty try to take the game away from the Bulls and get themselves the victory they needed to continue their run of momentum.

It will mean that the Bulls head home with just one victory out of three, after two home wins started the competition off in style for them.

But coach Johan Ackermann, while not happy with the loss, will feel at least there is progress as their defensive system held strong for long periods during the game despite being overwhelmed and several 50-50s going against them.

ENOUGH PROMISE

Still, there is enough promise in this Bulls team to see them tightening up and if they get their Bok contingent back to make a run for the title next year if they are still in the running.

The Bulls have shown that on the counter attack they can be deadly, but there needs to be a lot of work still to get them shored up so that they don’t leak soft tries.

Still, that final quarter sunk them and the turnaround try was ruthless in this and gave Glasgow the momentum to get the win.

It all came after Glasgow started sensationally, dominating the first four and a half minutes to lead to Sione Tuipulotu going over for the opening try after dominating those opening stanzas.

Despite little ball, the Bulls were able to counter punch six minutes later when Willie le Roux took an up and under and in the motion of catching it, popped it to a flying Sebastian de Klerk, who ran through most of the Warriors team, before putting Stravino Jacobs away to score.

The arm wrestle was apparent as neither side took charge before the Bulls took the lead in the second half, when a quick throw in by Le Roux was turned into an attack by Ruan Nortje and De Klerk, the latter who opened up the defence before sending the fullback over the line for what looked like an exceptional try.

Their third try was disallowed after Le Roux chipped over the defence, collected and did a one-two with Kurt-Lee Arendse to score, when replays showed a knock on and the try was disallowed.

CRUCIAL DECISION

That proved to be a crucial decision as shortly afterward Glasgow marched forward to the Bulls line with a maul that went down and referee Craig Evans gave the Bulls the blame, awarding a penalty try and yellow carding Francois Kloppers in the process, despite replays showing it went down naturally.

That swung the game in the visitors favour and the string of penalties against the Bulls afterwards were deadly, allowing Nathan McBeth to go over the line from close range and seal the game.

Scorers

Glasgow Warriors - tries: Sioni Tuipulotu, Penalty try, Nathan Macbeth. Conversions: Adam Hastings

Vodacom Bulls - tries: Stravino Jacobs, Willie le Roux. Conversion: Keagan Johannes.

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