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Bulls ride their luck for valuable victory in Galway

rugby17 October 2025 21:40
By:Brenden Nel
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The Vodacom Bulls survived a late rally to earn a hard-fought, if not controversial at times, 28-27 win over Irish side Connacht in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship match in Galway on Friday night.

The Bulls survived two late conversions - referee Mike Adamson allowed Connacht replacement kicker Sean Naughton a second chance after he missed the conversion because of an apparent early charge from the Bulls defenders - but Naughton missed again with a kick that would have probably won them the game.

But that wasn’t the only controversy on a night where the home side used almost every trick in the book to influence the game, but weren’t able to win it at the death.

Bulls hooker Jan-Hendrik Wessels was accused by Josh Murphy in the 19th minute of grabbing his groin at a ruck, prompting Murphy to lash out and strike Wessels in the face. While television replays showed no evidence of the alleged incident, it was clear that something upset Murphy in the process.

DRAMA WITH 20-MINUTE RED CARD

The problem for Murphy was that without television evidence, the officials could not act, and Wessels, if he did what was alleged, was very lucky indeed to get away with it. With that in mind, the only evidence was Murphy’s blow, which cost him a 20-minute red card and ended his game.

The outrage in the partisan crowd was apparent, and the television director fuelled the anger by replaying any marginal incident that was the fault of the Bulls several times, while ignoring replays of any of Connacht’s indiscretions.

This left a bit of a sour taste and left the game a bit ill-tempered, as Connacht constantly questioned Adamson's every decision.

In the end, though, the Bulls survived the controversy and will point to their supreme defensive effort that won them the game.

After being accused of leaking too many tries, the solid effort on defence was clear to see as they had to make a massive 236 tackles on the night - as opposed to the 104 that Connacht made.

MASSIVE TACKLE STATS

That stat alone talks about the response to the loss to Ulster last weekend, but also the sense of pride within the Bulls camp. Jeandre Rudolph topped those stats with 25 tackles, but Nama Xaba (22) and captain Reinhardt Ludwig (21) were very close behind.

In fact, no less than eight Bulls players made more than a dozen tackles, while 13 made 10 or more, with Cobus Wiese (19), young JJ Theron (19) and Wessels (18) all featuring highly.

That stat was probably what kept Connacht at bay as they had virtually no forward momentum for much of the game, as they ran into a wall of Bulls defenders time and again.

Add to that their soft left flank, which the Bulls exploited for all three of their tries, two of which were scored by scrumhalf Paul de Wet, while all three featured cameos by both Willie le Roux and Sebastian de Klerk.

WILLIE LE ROUX MASTERCLASS

Le Roux’s mastery of drawing defences was clear to see, while De Klerk’s speed on the attack made two of the tries. De Wet linked up superbly with both players to show he is settling down well in the light blue jersey.

In the end, all of Connacht’s tries came from Bulls' mistakes and credit must go to the home side for striking when they got the chance.

The first try came from a missed lineout throw by Wessels, which ignited a Connacht attack, and after a penalty, flyhalf Josh Ioane went left and found a mismatch with Wilco Louw, getting past his stretched arm to score the opening try.

But the Bulls kicked into motion and scored a beauty of a try, starting when Le Roux fielded a high ball, beat two defenders before setting up the attack. Canan Moodie moved seamlessly into the backline and offloaded to De Klerk, whose sudden acceleration took defenders out of play before an inside pass to De Wet to score.

Then came the drama around Murphy and his red card, but the Bulls struck again just after he left the field, on the same side of the pitch where Le Roux drew the defender and put De Klerk into a hole at speed, only to receive the inside pass to score a superbly worked try.

At 12-7 at the break, the Bulls were pretty chuffed with themselves as they upped the ante early in the second half with a cheeky drop-goal by Keagan Johannes in their first foray into the 22 in the half.

CONNACHT COMEBACK

But Connacht weren’t going away and they finally found a hole where Ioane put Bryan Ralston into a gap with an inside pass, and Ralston sent Caolin Blade in at the corner to score.

It was a one-point game again, but nine minutes later, the Bulls exploited the left flank again, this time Le Roux and Moodie putting De Klerk into space on the outside before the inside pass found De Wet again for his second.

Johannes added a conversion and a penalty for an 11-point lead and it looked as if the Bulls would cruise home, but a turnover ball, a kick through and Johannes missing the bobbling ball allowed Sean Naughton to kick ahead and score in the corner.

A penalty brought Connacht within six and as the game was winding down, a high tackle by Willie le Roux led to the crowd baying for blood. The hit was adjudged to be mostly on the body, but a penalty led to a sustained round of pressure on the Bulls' line. The ball went wide and Irish winger Mack Hansen stretched out to score, bringing his team within one with the conversion to come.

Then came the drama of two kicks that could have won the game for Connacht and the Bulls held on for a big victory, even if it was too close for comfort.

In the process, though, they probably would have solidified the team spirit that coach Johan Ackermann is searching for, and that will be good as they head to Glasgow for their third and final tour match.

Because through all the drama and tension, the team did what they needed to. One point is as good a win as any, just ask any Springbok fan at the 2023 World Cup.

SCORERS

CONNACHT - tries: Josh Ioane, Caolin Blade, Sean Naughton, Mack Hanson. Conversions: Josh Ioane (2). Penalty: Naughton.

VODACOM BULLS - tries: Paul de Wet (2), Willie le Roux. Conversions: Keagan Johannes (2). Penalties: Johannes (2). Drop goals: Johannes.

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