Cape Town - The Bulls have secured a hard fought 30-27 win over the Sunwolves in a Super Rugby match played at the Singapore National Stadium.
It was the home side that opened the scoring as early as the first minute after the Bulls failed to deal with a kick by Riaan Viljoen, allowing flank Andrew Durutalo to score a converted try.
Bulls pivot Tiaan Schoeman and his Sunwolves counterpart Tusi Pisi then traded penalties before a further two penalties by Schoeman cut the deficit to one point as the Sunwolves led 10-9 with 20 minutes played.
The Sunwolves lost No. 8 Tomas Leonardi to the sin-bin for a cynical foul which stopped a certain Bulls try.
In the 25th minute Bulls skipper Adriaan Strauss scored his team's first try as the home side had no answer to a rampant Bulls maul.
Schoeman converted and no further scoring took place during the half as the Bulls led 16-10 at the break.
In the second half the Bulls quickly extended their lead with a converted try by Roelof Smit to take the score to 23-10.
The Sunwolves however, were not done as first Pisi slotted a penalty in the 50th minute followed by a long-range breakout rounded off by winger, Akihito Yamada.
This closed the gap to three points with 20 minutes to play.
The Bulls once again built up some breathing space as Jamba Ulengo was adjudged by the TMO to have scored after a dart close to the line.
Schoeman converted to extend the Bulls lead to 30-20.
A further Sunwolves yellow card followed with Ed Quirk banished to the sin-bin in the 67th minute.
The home side fought on however, and secured a losing bonus point with a converted try just after the final whistle through replacement scrumhalf Yuki Yatomi.
Scores
Sunwolves
Tries: Durutalo, Yamada, Yatomi
Conversions: Pisi (3)
Penalties: Pisi (2)
Bulls
Tries: Strauss, Smit, Ulengo
Conversions: Schoeman (3)
Penalties: Schoeman (3)
Teams
Sunwolves
15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Viliami Lolohea, 13.Harumichi Tatekawa , 12 Yu Tamura, 11 Akihito Yamada, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Kaito Shigeno, 8 Tomas Leonardi, 7 Andrew Durutalo, 6 Yoshiya Hosoda, 5 Liaki Moli, 4 Hitoshi Ono , 3 Takuma Asahara, 2 Shota Horie (captain), 1 Keith Inagaki
Substitutes: 16 Futoshi Mori,17 Masataka Mikami,18 Shinosuke Kakinaga, 19 Shinya Makabe, 20 Ed Quirk, 21 Yuki Yatomi, 22 Mifiposeti Paea , 23 Yasutaka Sasakura
Bulls
15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Jamba Ulengo, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Arno Botha, 7 Jannes Kirsten, 6 Roelof Smit, 5 RG Snyman, 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Lizo Gqoboka
Substitutes: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Pierre Schoeman, 19 Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, 20 Nic de Jager, 21 Piet van Zyl, 22 Francois Brummer, 23 Jan Serfontein