Cape Town - Bulls coach John Mitchell says he took a lot of positives from their pre-season defeat to the Sharks in Polokwane at the weekend.
The Sharks, who fielded different teams in each half, won the warm-up encounter 31-14 at Peter Mokaba Stadium.
The Durbanites outscored the Bulls by five tries to two but Mitchell was not perturbed by the end result.
“There’s lots to be optimistic about. We didn’t come here with a perfect performance as our goal,” Mitchell told Netwerk24.
The Bulls attacked with vigour at times, but too many handling errors proved costly.
Mitchell was happy with his side’s scrummaging and defence, but expressed concern over their lineout play.
“We played most of the rugby but we gave them too much turnover possession. Losing several lineouts also robbed us of attacking opportunities. But there’s always room for improvement. As I whole, I’m actually quite impressed.”
Scorers:
Bulls
Tries: Manie Libbok, Jaco Visagie
Conversions: Libbok, Marnitz Boshoff
Sharks
Tries: Cameron Wright, Makazole Mapimpi (2), Marius Louw, Jacques Vermeulen
Conversions: Curwin Bosch, Rob du Preez (2)
Teams:
Sharks
First half:
15 Lwazi Mvovo, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Jeremy Ward, 11
S'busiso Nkosi, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Cameron Wright, 8 Keegan Daniel, 7
Tyler Paul, 6 Jacques Vermeulen, 5 Ruan Botha (captain), 4 Hyron
Andrews, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Juan Schoeman
Second half:
15 Garth April, 14 Makazole Mapimpi, 13 Tristan Blewett, 12 Marius
Louw, 11 Courtney Winnaar, 10 Robert du Preez, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 Tera
Mtembu, 7 Wian Vosloo, 6 Philip van der Walt, 5 Stephan Lewies, 4
Gideon Koegelenberg, 3 John-Hubert Meyer, 2 Franco Marais (captain), 1
Mzamo Majola
Extra players: Chiliboy Ralepelle, Khuta Mchunu
Bulls
15 Divan Rossouw, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Johnny Kotze, 12 Burger Odendaal (captain), 11 Jade Stighling, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Thembelani Bholi, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Aston Fortuin, 4 Ruben van Heerden, 3 Frans van Wyk, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Lizo Gqoboka
Substitutes: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Pierre Schoeman, 18 Conraad van Vuuren, 19 Eli Snyman, 20 Jano Venter, 21 Roelof Smit, 22 Andre Warner, 23 Marnitz Boshoff, 24 Franco Naude, 25 Jamba Ulengo, 26 Duncan Matthews