Bulls v Edinburgh: Hanekom Fires Bok Shot

A poor start, worsened by an early yellow card for Zak Burger, saw South Africa’s last remaining hope to clinch the silverware trail 14-0 in as many minutes and 24-7 at halftime, with David Kriel scoring the visitors’ only try of the half.

The hosts’ lead stretched even further, to 31-7, three minutes into the second half after Jannes Kirsten was yellow-carded. That’s when the Bulls turned to their forwards to start the fightback as their driving maul forced Edinburgh to concede a penalty try.

Inspired by their bench, the Bulls scored through the sublime Cameron Hanekom and Kriel – who crashed over for his second – either side of a Ross McCann penalty goal to close the gap to six, but couldn’t find the killshot to keep their title hopes alive.

Our top three Bulls standouts were:

Cameron Hanekom

In the wake of news of Jasper Wiese’s season-ending neck injury, Hanekom wasted no time at all staking his claim for the Springbok No. 8 jersey.

Jake White called for an 80-minute performance for the 22-year-old prodigy and that’s exactly what he delivered. He was lightning-quick on the 4G pitch, an absolute powerhouse and a tireless Trojan on both sides of the ball.

He scored a try, made an unrivalled 15 carries and a joint-match-high 14 tackles along with opposite number Magnus Bradbury

Johan Goosen

The veteran flyhalf was a game-changer when he came on at the start of the second half.

He brought poise and unpredictability to the table, along with his experience. His versatile kicking game had Edinburgh at sixes and sevens, whether it was a deft chip for Canan Moodie to pluck out of the sky or dangerous grubbers.

His tactical kicking was on the money, too, as were his line kicks, with him punting the men from Pretoria to within five metres of the try line on more than one occasion. He was physical on defence as well, as highlighted by his massive hit on James Lang.

Canan Moodie

Moodie was another among the Bulls’ bench players who breathed new life into the team after he replaced an injured Sergeal Petersen in the second half.

The 22-year-old has become somewhat of a forgotten figure in the Springbok mix and his magnificent outing was exactly the type of performance to get Bok fans buzzing over him again and remind Rassie Erasmus of what he’s capable of.

All gas and no breaks, he was the Bulls’ biggest danger man and was dynamite in the air as well, retaining possession twice by winning contestable kicks.