Bristol’s Champions Cup hopes in a spin as Mchunu drives Bulls to storming win

A sobering defeat for Bristol. A sobering defeat for English rugby. The Bulls were far from full strength, having to rest multiple Springboks, but they navigated the absences, not to mention the 6,000 miles and 20C drop in temperature from their Pretoria home, to win in some comfort and all but guarantee themselves a place in the knockouts.

“Away wins are at a premium,” said the Bulls coach, Jake White. “Not many win away in any competition, let alone this Champions Cup. So to win away and get the bonus point is something we will enjoy, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.”

The Bears are not quite out of the reckoning mathematically, but realistically it is the Challenge Cup for them, with a trip to Connacht to come on Friday. They were not at full strength either, most obviously missing their England props, Ellis Genge and Kyle Sinckler. Boy, could they have used them.

The Bulls marmalised the Bears up front, particularly at scrum time, where the penalty count was six to none in favour of the visitors. What is more, in all the senseless red cards for unavoidable accidents these days, we were reminded of that other nonsensical quirk in rugby’s disciplinary universe – yellow cards for beaten prop forwards.

Max Lahiff was singled out early in the second half, having replaced George Kloska, who had seen most of the penalties in the first half. Worse, at the next scrum, halfway through his spell in the bin, Bristol could not field a full front row, which meant they had to surrender a second player in return for uncontested scrums.

“It was a huge turning point,” said the Bristol coach, Pat Lam. “I have to strongly disagree with that scrum. The law’s the law, but once the referees have made up their mind, it’s very difficult. Certainly, we haven’t been put in that situation before.”

Bristol played admirably for that spell down to 13, but at the end of it Kieran Marmion kicked the ball long instead of off the field, where Lahiff was waiting to return. The Bulls fielded the kick, then countered to score the match-swaying try, their second, by Khutha Mchunu, after a break by one of their huge centres, Harold Vorster.

Bristol were lucky to be as close as they were, turning round a mere 10-7 behind, after Reinhardt Ludwig had a try disallowed through the closest of calls by the TMO in the second quarter. Marmion scored their only try of the first half, a fine effort sparked by AJ MacGinty’s dummy switch and James Williams, but they were trailing 10-0 at that point. Sergeal Petersen’s finish was deadly, having been put away by the brilliant full-back, Devon Williams.

Once the Bulls had scored that decisive third try, they pulled away in the final quarter to open up a 31-7 lead and the bonus point. Elrigh Louw, a young flanker with a big future, reached out of a thicket of players to score their third, before Jan-Hendrik Wessels intercepted Steve Luatua’s inside ball on halfway to gallop home. Bristol’s two tries in the last five minutes, by the lively Gabriel Ibitoye and Magnus Bradbury, served as scant consolation.

Of scanter consolation still is the amusing idea that Ashton Gate may yet feature again in the competition. The South African teams are not shareholders in EPCR, so they are not allowed to host a semi-final (unless it is against another South African team). The Bulls, as it happens, have nominated Ashton Gate as their venue of choice, should they make the semis. It will take a fine team to stop them.