{"id":12422,"date":"2012-07-15T00:44:57","date_gmt":"2012-07-14T22:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/rugby-bulls-beat-lions-to-book-ticket-to-christchurch\/"},"modified":"2012-07-15T00:44:57","modified_gmt":"2012-07-14T22:44:57","slug":"rugby-bulls-beat-lions-to-book-ticket-to-christchurch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-bulls-beat-lions-to-book-ticket-to-christchurch\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Bulls beat Lions to book ticket to Christchurch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Ken Borland<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">PRETORIA, July 14<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; The Bulls raised their game in<br \/>\nthe second half to beat struggling neighbours the Lions 37-20 in<br \/>\ntheir Super Rugby match on Saturday and qualify for a playoff<br \/>\nagainst the Crusaders in Christchurch.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The three-time champions struggled in the first half, which<br \/>\nended with the scores level 20-20, but rallied to score two<br \/>\ntries in the first 10 minutes of the second to set up victory<br \/>\nand clinch fifth place in the final standings.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Lions, with relegation from Super Rugby hanging over<br \/>\ntheir heads, came out roaring for their possible last<br \/>\nappearance, dominating the Bulls in the scrums and breaking<br \/>\nthrough tackles.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>But they were once again frustrated by the errors that have<br \/>\ncharacterised their campaign, Bulls wing Akona Ndungane taking<br \/>\nadvantage of flatfooted passing down the backline to intercept<br \/>\nand score the opening try in the 16th minute.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Lions flyhalf Elton Jantjies kicked two penalties to keep<br \/>\nthe visitors in touch at 6-10 down until the half-hour, when<br \/>\ntheir defence failed, two men going for Bulls scrumhalf Francois<br \/>\nHougaard as he darted from the base of a five-metre scrum,<br \/>\nallowing wing Bjorn Basson to burst through a huge gap and<br \/>\nscore.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Lions were trailing 6-17, but they bounced back superbly<br \/>\nas tenacious scrumhalf Michael Bondesio ran straight through<br \/>\nBulls flyhalf Morne Steyn to score from a five-metre scrum and,<br \/>\nalthough the visitors then presented Steyn with an easy penalty<br \/>\nafter a ruck infringement, an excellent dash down the left<br \/>\ntouchline by wing Anthony Volmink gave the Lions a lineout feed<br \/>\nfive metres from the tryline.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Lions had struggled to secure their own lineout ball<br \/>\nthroughout the first half, but this time lock Hendrik Roodt took<br \/>\nthe ball and captain Josh Strauss was at the front of the drive<br \/>\nover the line.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Jantjies converted the try from the touchline to draw the<br \/>\nLions level and leave the Bulls needing a much-improved second<br \/>\nhalf to keep their campaign alive.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ken Borland PRETORIA, July 14 (Reuters) &#8211; The Bulls raised their game in the second half to beat struggling neighbours the Lions 37-20 in their Super Rugby match on Saturday and qualify for a playoff against the Crusaders in Christchurch. The three-time champions struggled in the first half, which ended with the scores level [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}