Pumas humiliate woeful Blue Bulls

Cape Town - The Pumas annihilated a woeful Blue Bulls outfit in their Currie Cup encounter at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on Friday evening.

The Pumas won 51-15, after leading 22-10 at half-time.

It was their first Currie Cup win over the Blue Bulls since 2010 and they dazzled in front of their home fans, outscoring their more fancied opponents by eight tries to two.

It was John Mitchell’s first game as head coach of the Blue Bulls, after the union earlier in the week dismissed Nollis Marais on leave for the remainder of the year.

There was however no Mitchell factor to revive the Bulls as they slumped to a fourth successive loss.

Discipline was again a major issue for the men from Pretoria, who received three yellow cards - wing Kefentse Mahlo (34th minute), loose forward Jano Venter (44th) and lock Ruben van Heerden (49th) all spent time in the sin-bin.

The bonus-point win saw the Pumas move up to fourth on the overall Currie Cup standings, while the Blue Bulls slipped down to sixth.

In next weekend’s action, the Bulls host Griquas in Pretoria (Friday, September 1 - 18:15), while the Pumas tackle the Golden Lions in Johannesburg (Saturday, September - 14:00).

Scorers:

Pumas

Tries: Mark Pretorius (3), Thembelani Bholi, Stefan Ungerer, Khwezi Mona, Ruwellyn Isbell, Franke Herne
Conversions: Kobus Marais (3) Gerrit Smith
Penalty: Justin van Staden

Blue Bulls

Tries: Andre Warner, Warrick Gelant
Conversion: Joshua Stander
Penalty: Stander

Teams:

Pumas

15 Gerrit Smith, 14 JP Lewis, 13 Jerome Pretorius, 12 Hennie Skorbinski (captain), 11 Ruwellyn Isbell, 10 Justin van Staden, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Francois Kleinhans, 7 Lambert Groenewald, 6 Thembelani Bholi, 5 Hugo Kloppers, 4 Stefan Willemse, 3 Pieter Scholtz, 2 Mark Pretorius 1 Kwezi Mona

Substitutes: 16 Frank Herne, 17 De-Jay Terblanche, 18 Cameron Lindsay, 19 Chris Cloete/Brian Shabangu, 20 Willie Engelbrecht, 21 Reynier van Rooyen, 22 Kobus Marais

Blue Bulls

15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Jamba Ulengo, 13 Dries Swanepoel, 12 JT Jackson, 11 Kefentse Mahlo, 10 Joshua Stander, 9 Andre Warner, 8 Nic de Jager (captain), 7 Jannes Kirsten, 6 Boom Prinsloo, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Abongile Nonkontwana, 3 Conraad van Vuuren, 2 Jan-Henning Campher, 1 Lizo Gqoboka

Substitutes: 16 Edgar Marutlulle, 17 Dayan van der Westhuizen, 18 Clyde Davids, 19 Jano Venter, 20 Piet van Zyl, 21 Marnitz Boshoff, 22 Johnny Kotze