Bulls claim comfortable warm-up wins

The Vodacom Bulls claimed a 96-5 and 40-0 win over Tuks in two warm-up matches on Saturday.

With the Bulls splitting their squad into two groups for the friendly games as part of their preparations for Vodacom Super Rugby, they first scored 40 unanswered points, before nearly running up a century of points in the second match.

In the opening match, Rosko Specman who scored one of three tries to hand the Bulls a 21-0 lead.

That advantage grew stronger in the second half with three more tries, including one from centre Johnny Kotze and ultimately the Bulls claim a commanding 40-point win.

The second fixture was an even bigger hammering than the first, but the Bulls did concede a try in the last match.

With a lineup featuring a vast majority of their Vodacom Super Rugby players, the Bulls produced a ruthless display.

They led 42-0 at the interval courtesy of six unanswered tries. The floodgates opened in the second stanza as the Bulls ran in eight more scores while only leaking one.

In fact, the referee ultimately ended the second match with eight minutes remaining due to the one-sided nature of the clash.

All in all, it was a rather gentle hit-out for the Bulls, but they will face a sterner Test next Sunday when they play the Lions on Super Hero Sunday.

Bulls (warm-up match 1):

15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Cornal Hendricks, 13 Johnny Kotze, 12 Burger Odendaal (c), 11 Rosko Specman, 10 Chris Smith, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Muller Uys, 7 Wian Vosloo, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Jaundre Kruger, 4 Andries Ferreira, 3 Wiehahn Herbst, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Simphiwe Matanzima.

Substitutes: 16 Louis van der Westhuizen, 17 Dayan van der Westhuizen, 18 Ian Groenewald, 19 Marius Verwey, 20 Jean Droste, 21 David Coetzer, 22 Dawid Kellerman, 23 Diego Appolis, 24 Tim Agaba.

Bulls (warm-up match 2):

15 Richard Kriel, 14 Jade Stighling, 13 Marnus Potgieter, 12 Dylan Sage, 11 Divan Rossouw, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Ivan van Zyl, 8 Josh Strauss, 7 Abongile Nonkontwana, 6 Jeandre Rudolph, 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Ryno Pieterse, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.

Substitutes: 16 Corniel Els, 17 Madot Mabokela, 18 Adre Smith, 19 Ewan Coetzee, 20 Marco Jansen van Vuren, 21 Morne Steyn, 22 Jay-Cee Nel, 23 Franco Naude, 24 Vaughen Isaacs.

Photo: @BlueBullsRugby/Twitter