The Vodacom Bulls have qualified for the investec chamopions cup round of 16 despite winning just one pool match.
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The Bulls lost their first three pool games, against Bordeaux Begles (46-33), the Northampton Saints (50-5) and the Bristol Bears (61-49) before edging Pau 26-24 in France on Friday night.
However, that was enough to finish fourth in Pool 4 above Pau and the Scarlets, who lost 43-28 to the Saints on Sunday.
In Pool 1, Toulouse’s 77-7 victory against the Sale Sharks all but confirmed the Sharks’ elimination, despite the Durban-based side thumping Clermont 50-12 earlier on Saturday. Saracens would have to suffer a 49-point defeat to the Glasgow Warriors on Sunday night, and not get a bonus point, for the Sharks to progress.
In Pool 3, the Stormers booked their place in the last 16 with a 39-26 win against the Leicester Tigers in Cape Town on Saturday.
Keohane notes that only a week earlier the Bulls had been “humiliated in Pretoria” after conceding 61 points to Bristol, a result that often “breaks teams, fractures belief and accelerates coaching obituaries”. In Pau, however, belief replaced fear, sparked by youth and finished by experience.
The turning point came through SA U20 world champion winger Cheswill Jooste, whose try Keohane describes as “outrageous quality”.
Handré Pollard’s conversion shifted momentum and reminded everyone why, as Keohane writes, “when the big kicks need to be converted, he is the master off the kicking tee”.
The Bulls’ bench, long criticised, finally delivered. Ruan Nortje and Marco van Staden brought control and aggression, while Jeandre Rudolph embodied the fight.
“Rudolph, week after week, even as the Bulls stumbled, has been their most consistent carrier,” Keohane writes, praising his decisive breakdown steal to seal the win.
