Warrick Gelant scored three tries but it was the in-form Springbok Jan Serfontein who set it all up and led the charge for a Vodacom Bulls team that were full value for their comprehensive 30-17 win over the Cell C Sharks in their Super Rugby derby in Durban on Friday.
All week the talk has been that individual Bulls players had gained confidence through their performances in winning efforts with the Springboks and South Africa A during the June international break. At Kings Park they brought it into a team effort that thoroughly delivered on the pre-match promise.
Fullback Gelant certainly brings a different attacking dimension to the Bulls when he is playing and used properly. On Friday night he was outstanding as he and Serfontein, the man of the series in the recent three-match battle between the Boks and France, dovetailed superbly as they tormented and bedazzled the floundering Sharks defenders.
Gelant was one of the players who did well for SA A and now looks back to his promising best after a long period out of the game nursing two separate serious injuries. An attacking fullback always brings that extra angle, and Gelant brings that. Surely it will only be a matter of time before he is ready to take the step up to the Bok No 15 jersey.
Serfontein was the fulcrum around which so much of the Bulls’ attacking game revolved, and he made it across the gain-line almost every time he touched the ball. His angles of running were superb and so was his strength in the tackle.
With those players doing well, it helped facilitate good performances from the inexperienced Bulls wings, who were placed under the spotlight before the game. Both Duncan Turner and Kefentse Mahlo featured in some of the impressive Bulls attacking movements as well as in a strong defensive effort from a team that before this game had not won away this season.
By contrast, the Sharks had not lost at home, so this was their first defeat of the year in Durban. Although they would probably agree that the Bulls played well and were just better than them on the night, the Sharks would probably also agree that they contributed to their own demise, with the Sharks feasting on the home team’s mistakes.
