The Bulls were a staggering disappointment in their failure to pitch up in the United Rugby Championship final in Dublin, losing 36-7 to complete a clean sweep of four losses in four URC finals.
You have to hand it to the Bulls: Nobody does failure in finals better than the men from Pretoria.
The amazing thing was that everything the Bulls said they would avoid happening in the final, in fact, came to pass. In the first half, they were beyond hopeless in their execution and totally emasculated in their physical approach, to see Leinster sweep into a 29-0 lead.
The start was exactly what they had planned not to have — Canan Moodie slapped down a pass out wide and was sent to the bin just 90 seconds into the game.
All the talk from the Bulls’ camp had been about preventing Leinster from having their traditional fast start, and discipline was a big part of that.
From the penalty, Leinster surged into the Bulls’ 22, and it was Cameron Hanekom who saved the day with a muscular turnover at a ruck.
But this good work was undone when a pass to Handre Pollard went astray, and winger Tommy O’Brien scooped up the loose ball and scampered 60m to the Bulls’ posts.
It got substantially worse for the Bulls in the 15th minute. They were fast asleep when playmaker Jameson Gibson-Park swept a quick lineout throw wide into the middle of the pitch, where it went to Rieko Ioane on the touchline, and he scored in the corner.
Sam Prendergast missed the conversion, but at 12-0 after 17 minutes, the Bulls were in deep trouble.
The Bulls were falling apart when they lost a lineout, and Leinster swept into their 22, but somehow they held the ball up over the line. Would this give them a lift?
Maybe it would have if they hadn’t then messed up the restart, and when Leinster took the ball wide, it was Willie le Roux’s turn to slap down a pass out wide, and take a turn in the sin bin.
And the champions promptly scored via No 8 Jack Conan. At 19-0 after 24 minutes, the Bulls looked shell-shocked.
And when the Bulls were penalised on the half hour for pushing too soon in the scrum, and Prendergast kicked the three points, Leinster were over the hills and far away at 22-0.
The Bulls’ worst enemies could not have scripted a worse first half for them. Everything they had planned on not happening in the first half came to pass, with bells and whistles.
In the 41st minute, the Bulls won a scrum penalty, but when Handre Pollard overcooked the kick to the corner, it summed up the worst imaginable 40 minutes from the Bulls.
They did not fire a shot. There was a palpable lack of intensity as the Leinster playmakers did what they liked. There was no line speed to put the vulnerable flyhalf Prendergast under pressure. No nothing.
In the second half, the Bulls simply had to score first, if not to spark a comeback, then to at least avoid a total humiliation.
Instead, it was Prendergast who scored after an Embrose Papier kick had been charged down, and the conversion made it a staggering 29-0 with 34 minutes of agony awaiting the visitors.
Given how abject the Bulls had been, it was a wonder that their powerful bomb squad was only introduced in the 53rd minute. It should have happened at halftime. And Wilco Louw and company immediately won a scrum penalty.
From the resulting maul, Harold Vorster seemed to have scored, but, despite the evidence, the score was not given.
In the 58th minute, James Louw was sin-binned for a slap down.
In the 60th minute, the Bulls at last fired a shot when one of their few successful attacking lineouts saw Moodie dart over.
The Bulls were fired up, but the wind went out of their sails when a dubious TMO call ruled out a try by Ruan Nortje because of a debatable forward pass by Moodie.
Instead, Leinster went to the other end of the field where substitute flyhalf Harry Byrne scored.
Scorers
Bulls — Tries: Canan Moodie, Ruan Nortje. Conversions; Hande Pollard (2).
Leinster — Tommy O’Brien, Rieko Ioane, Jack Conan, Sam Prendergast, Harry Byrne. Conversions: Sam Prendergast (3), Byrne. Penalties: Prendergast (2).
