Cape Town - Kurt-Lee Arendse is quickly turning into a cult hero at Loftus Versfeld, and Bulls coach Jake White says that it is “lovely” to have such a fullback in place following another thrilling display against the Dragons on Saturday night.
The 55-20 victory over the Newport side was their second half-century in consecutive weeks, following their 57-12 win over the Scarlets last weekend, and they are now well and truly in the playoff hunt in seventh position on the log.
The Bulls scored eight tries to the three of the Welsh outfit in a rampaging performance in Pretoria that took their United Rugby Championship winning streak to four.
And at the heart of many of those attacks was the 25-year-old Arendse, who starred for the Blitzboks sevens team previously. His conversion from left wing to fullback is now complete, and he had the Dragons in a spin with his tremendous pace and fancy footwork to score two tries himself.
His second touchdown in particular had the Loftus crowd on their feet as he turned Dragons scrumhalf Gonzalo Bertranou inside-out with some outstanding stepping.
“It’s phenomenal to have a fullback like that. We’ve seen good sides have had fullbacks like that – Jason Robinson played for England. Even Kurt-Lee at one stage, he kicked the ball 50 or 60 metres on the exit as well, so it wasn’t just his attacking and running with ball-in-hand,” White said in the post-match press conference.
“With that exit where he tried to pick the ball up and they scored, if he had just kicked it, we probably would’ve scored again.
“It’s lovely to have him there, and he complements what we have as a backline. Harold (Vorster) and Lionel (Mapoe) played well in the midfield, and Canan (Moodie) as a youngster is also learning a lot from running opposite Kurt-Lee.”
The only negatives in what was another powerful performance were the injuries to tighthead prop Jacques van Rooyen and left wing Madosh Tambwe, who are both in doubt for next Saturday’s big showdown with Ulster at Loftus Versfeld (2pm kickoff).
“It never rains, it pours (with Van Rooyen’s injury) – get one (tighthead) back (Mornay Smith) and lose one. At this point in time, he got a whack on the knee from that tackle when he carried it out of the 22 there. He says it feels a little bit unstable, but we will have a look and see. We will have a scan on Monday and adapt accordingly,” White said.
“He (Tambwe) got whacked on the elbow, and I’m not quite sure… With Madosh, little things become big things. We’ll see!
“Last week we played really well, and this week we scored another 50 points, so you’ve got to be proud of that. I think the way we are playing is also nice – there was some good interplay between backs and forwards.
“But it’s a tough comp. You can see how tough this competition is – I saw now the Sharks lost (to Edinburgh), Ulster were probably a bit unlucky not to beat the Stormers today. So, we’ve just got to take as many wins as we can.”
Points-Scorers
Bulls 55 – Tries: Arno Botha, Lionel Mapoe (2), Kurt-Lee Arendse (2), Johan Grobbelaar, Marcell Coetzee, Zak Burger. Conversions: Chris Smith (5), Morné Steyn (1). Penalty: Smith (1).
Dragons 20 – Tries: Rio Dyer, Jared Rosser, Sam Davies. Conversion: Davies (1). Penalty: Davies (1).