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Wandi Simelane tries to mark Phikolomzi Sobahle. (Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images)
The Bulls continued the steady repair process to their overall season with a vital 24-20 Currie Cup victory over the Sharks at Kings Park on Friday afternoon.
A trip to Durban seemed like exactly the type of tricky assignment that could've stopped the small gains made in last week's comfortable triumph over Griquas in its tracks, but, with Jake White commuting from Pretoria to be with his charges, the visitors managed to keep their hosts at bay.
They move to 13 points on the log and now might find the necessary momentum to overturn a horrific start to this season's tournament, which saw them lose their opening four matches.
In a game that had much high-octane action but many bouts of poor decision-making, the Bulls' counterattacking play and some excellent defence proved decisive.
Granted precious field position by Morne Steyn's expert tactical kicking in a howling wind, White's troops showed surprising cohesion and punch when they did have their 40% share of possession and in Sibongile Novuka, a hidden gem since graduating from the Varsity Shield to catching his director of rugby's eye, they had a ruthless finisher.
The 25-year-old fully deserved his hat-trick of tries, all scored in the corners as the Bulls utilised their width well.
Jan-Hendrik Wessels, who arguably produced his breakout performance as a re-treaded hooker and was named the official Man of the Match, was tireless as defender and imposing as ball-carrier, helping his team secure a bonus point for tries too when he rounded off from a maul.
Joey Mongalo, the Sharks coach and White's defence guru till last season, will have mixed feelings about the hosts' performance.
They dominated the first half yet had nothing to show for it as his brigade of youngsters lacked the nous to make tangible use of their attacking opportunities.
But they were much better after the turnaround as Mongalo brought on a few more experienced heads, a highlight being rookie winger Phikolomzi Sobahle's outstanding finish on the right from an attacking scrum.
Replacement Zee Mkhabela also scored from his first touch after the Durbanites showed purpose and delivered snappy passing to exploit oodles of space to the openside from another set-piece.
However, White will point out that both those scores came from Bulls errors that shouldn't have put them in those positions in the first place - Steyn dropping a mundane pass for Sobahle's try and Bernard van der Linde, a scrumhalf strangely employed on the wing given that a specialist in Kabelo Mokoena was left on the bench, showed his lack of experience in the position in botching a kick mop-up.
The final 10 minutes saw both sides being presented with various attacking opportunities, the Bulls notably wasting several chances to make the game safe with unwise chips ahead and, at times, looking in danger of regretting that waywardness as the Sharks made their way up field with the final minutes counting down.
But their superb defence would hold out.
Point scorers:
Sharks (3)
Try: Phikolomzi Sobahle, Zee Mkhabela
Conversions: Fred Zeilinga, Lionel Cronje
Penalties: Zeilinga (2)
Bulls (19)
Tries: Sibongile Novuka (3), Jan-Hendrik Wessels
Conversion: Morne Steyn (2)
English (US)