Outclassed Ospreys put the sword by Bulls in Pretoria

The Ospreys’ unbeaten record against South African opposition in the United Rugby Championship came to an end with a 61-24 defeat by the Bulls.

Wales’ World Cup co-captain Dewi Lake made his comeback from the hamstring injury sustained in January, but it was otherwise a gloomy afternoon for the Welsh region.

With three rounds of the regular season remaining, they remain firmly in the hunt for the quarter-finals even if they fell one try short of securing a bonus point at Loftus Versfeld.

The Bulls were magnificent from the start and their driving maul made its presence felt early on with Johan Grobbelaar the scorer. Not to be outshone, however, the backs then combined stylishly for David Kriel to touch down.

Unpicked

The home defence was unpicked near the half-hour mark when slick handling by the Ospreys’ tight five forwards created a chance that was finished by Luke Davies, but the theme of the home side scoring freely promptly resumed.

Kurt-Lee Arendse claimed one of the easier tries he will score after the Bulls forwards showed skill to keep the ball alive before scrum-half Embrose Papier found his wing with a bullet pass.

Kriel then picked off a Rhys Henry off-load to set up an easy finish for Canan Moodie and the centre was provider once more shortly after the interval when his grubber was collected and touched down by Moodie.

The Ospreys continued to accelerate their downfall when Justin Tipuric knocked on in the tackle and inevitably it was Kriel was reacted best to the mistake by setting up Papier.

Keiran Williams crossed to temporarily halt the one-way traffic but the rout resumed through Arendse and a penalty try awarded for a deliberate knock on by Max Nagy, who was sent to the sin bin as a result.

Ospreys wing Keelan Giles produced an athletic finish but just as his side were pushing for the try that would clinch a bonus point, Willie le Roux capitalised on an error to plunder a late score.