URC Lions vs Bulls: Johan Goosen and Akker Van Der Merwe Come Off Bench to Seal Comfortable Win

• The Bulls defeated the Lions in a sweltering United Rugby Championship tie
• Substitutes Akker van der Merwe and Marcel Coetzee scored the decisive tries
• Jake White's team moved to the top of the table with Leinster still having to play

The Bulls made it back-to-back victories over the Lions in the second Jukskei derby in three weeks.

Jake White left several of his main demolition crew on the bench and they proved influential in the second half as the Lions failed to gain a foothold throughout the 80 minutes.

The stifling heat did the players no favours with the thermometer reading 32 degrees Celsius at kickoff in Johannesburg.

As he did at Loftus, Sanele Nohamba opened the scoring with an early penalty but then missed a routine second a few minutes later.

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The Bulls' first venture into the Lions' 22 ended with an alert steel from Morne van den Berg who pounced on Stedman Gans at the breakdown.

Canan Moodie opened the Bulls account on 20 minutes when the Bulls broke from a scrum on their own 10-meter line. Embrose Papier broke clear of the defence before releasing Canan Moodie who applied the finish.

Jaco van der Walt's missed conversion kept the Lions within touching distance but neither team could trouble the scoreboard in the 20 minutes that followed, owing to handling errors and a lack of sharpness in critical moments.

The second half opened with continued infringements, one giving Nohamba a penalty shot from the halfway line.

The flyhalf's effort came off the post and the Lions won a scrum from a fumble that ensured. From the scrum, Nohamba found Richard Kriel hugging the touchline in space but his try was cancelled after the TMO considered Nohamba's pass to have been released forward out of the hands.

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From the resulting scrum, the Bulls used several mistakes by the Lions to take the ball down the other end. After earning an attacking lineout, Akker van der Merwe scored his ninth try of the season from the rolling maul.

Goosen missed the conversion but made it a two-try game with 20 minutes to go from another penalty. An attacking lineout for the Bulls on 67 minutes was taken through a few phases before Marcel Coetzee crashed over for the game-sealing third try.

Quan Horn scored in the 72nd minute after some oval-ball pinball following a chip kick but David Kriel earned a bonus point for the Bulls with six minutes to play when he regathed his own chip-kick.

The 25 -10 scoreline pushed the Bulls to the top of the table while they await the result of Leinster's game with Benetton.

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