EPCR latest: Hanekom & Moodie sizzle for battered Bulls
Springboks Cameron Hanekom and Canan Moodie provided the grunt and the class for the Vodacom Bulls in an EPCR Challenge Cup quarter-final exit characterised by a limp first half performance.
There will be no South African teams in the EPCR Challenge Cup semi-finals in the first week of May and there will be none in the Investec Champions Cup last four.
The Vodacom United Rugby Championship is the only one in which the South African challenge remains alive.
The Bulls trailed 24-7 at half-time and 31-7 within a few minutes of the restart and it took the introduction of six Springboks in the second half to ignite the Bulls and turn the knockout play-off against hosts Edinburgh into a contest.
There was an opportunity for the Bulls to win the match in the final five minutes, but their field position advantage could not translate into the needed converted try to snatch a one-point win.
Instead, the hosts hung on and won 34-28.
Hanekom was comfortably the Bulls best forward. He led the tackle count for the Bulls with 13, made the top metres with 54 and his 14 carries were also the most. Reserve prop Jan-Hendrik Wessels was industrious in his second half performance, while the best back was Springbok Canan Moodie, who sizzled on the right wing.
Moodie, who played the final 35 minutes, carried the ball eight times and made the second most metres on attack (50). He was a constant threat with the ball in hand.
Johan Goosen, at flyhalf, added impetus and Marco van Staden brought menace and intensity to the breakdown.
The first half was where the match was lost. Defensively the Bulls were shocking, they lacked fire in the belly and the line out wobbled. The set piece, their strength, was negated and the first-time tackling was an embarrassment for professional players.
The Bulls made 115 tackles and missed 22, to the seven missed from Edinburgh, who made 141 tackles.
Inaccuracy, in the opening 45 minutes, was costly for the Bulls and they conceded 17 turnovers to the 10 of the hosts.
The inconsistency of the Bulls has been an unfortunate feature of their matches this season and it was no different in Edinburgh.
They were once again limp and lethal but the latter came too late to excuse the limpness of a shocking first half.
The Bulls remain up north for their two Vodacom URC matches against Munster in Limerick and Glasgow.
The Bulls are currently third in the URC and the Glasgow Warriors are second.
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