The Vodacom Bulls beat Stade Français 56-20 at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday in their Champions Cup opener, scoring eight tries in Round 1 of Pool 4. Cheswill Jooste scored three of them and was named man of the match. Handré Pollard kicked all eight conversions for a personal 16 points.
Four tries in a pool match earns a bonus point, so eight tries and a 36-point margin give the Bulls the full five log points from their first outing.
A Try Inside The First Minute
The Bulls did not wait. Harold Vorster kicked through on the first possession, Jooste ran onto it and scored, and Pollard converted before the clock reached two minutes.
Ihaia West got Stade Français on the board with a penalty in the ninth minute.
Cobus Wiese forced his way over in the 16th for the second Bulls try, Pollard converted again, and the hosts were out to 14-3.
West did not last the half. He came off in the 17th minute and Louis Foursans-Bourdette took over the kicking duties, landing a penalty in the 32nd.
Cameron Hanekom scored the third Bulls try in the 36th minute and Pollard’s conversion closed the half at 21-6.
Stade Français Got Back To Within Eight
The French side came out after the break with a plan. Jacques Botha scored in the 43rd minute and Foursans-Bourdette converted.
Marco van Staden answered three minutes later, Pollard kicked the extras, and the Bulls led 28-13.
Then Petero Mailulu, on off the bench moments earlier, scored in the 55th minute. Foursans-Bourdette converted and it was 28-20 with a quarter of the match still to play.
That was the closest Stade Français came, and the last time they scored.
Jeandré Rudolph Scored From Nowhere
Rudolph came on for Hanekom in the 52nd minute and scored ten minutes later, wide out and at pace, finishing a move that put the Bulls 35-20 ahead.
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🗣️ “Jeandré Rudolph scored the try of the year, pretending to be a hybrid loosie / left wing for the Bulls. What a player!” – 🎙️Jay
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He is a loose forward by trade, and a replacement number six arriving on the outside shoulder is not what a Stade Français defence had been set up to cover.
From that point the visitors did not get back into the Bulls half with any real threat.
Cheswill Jooste’s Hat-Trick In The Champions Cup Opener
Jooste is 20 years old. He finished the afternoon with three tries in a match the Bulls won by 36 points, and two of them came inside three minutes.
Jan-Hendrik Wessels went over in the 67th, finishing a Willie le Roux cross-kick.
Jooste’s second arrived in the 73rd minute, a long Le Roux pass putting him into the overlap on the outside.
His third came two minutes later, the winger threading the gaps himself against a defence that had stopped moving across.
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🗣️ “Jooste was unplayable. Three tries and the Bulls looked a class above. Perfect Champions Cup opener.” – 🎙️Jay
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Pollard converted all four second-half tries after Rudolph’s. Twenty-eight unanswered points in eighteen minutes.
Who Scored The Bulls’ Eight Tries?
- Cheswill Jooste — 1st minute
- Cobus Wiese — 16th
- Cameron Hanekom — 36th
- Marco van Staden — 46th
- Jeandré Rudolph — 62nd
- Jan-Hendrik Wessels — 67th
- Cheswill Jooste — 73rd
- Cheswill Jooste — 75th
Handré Pollard Kicked Eight From Eight
Pollard did not miss. Eight conversions from eight attempts, from the touchline and from in front, across both halves.
That is the difference between 56 points and something in the forties, and it is the reason the bonus point was never in doubt once the fourth try went down.
His kicking also kept the Bulls playing in the right half for most of the second period, with Stade Français forced to start again from deep every time they conceded.
A Young Bulls Side Did This
Elrigh Louw captained the side. Luan Giliomee, 20, started at fullback on his Bulls debut.
Willie le Roux came on for Harold Vorster in the 52nd minute and had a hand in two of the tries that followed.
Johan Ackermann’s selection put youth in the back three and trusted it against a Top 14 side that arrived in Pretoria off a 30-22 win over Montpellier. The answer came inside sixty seconds and never really changed.
The Bulls Replacements
- Embrose Papier for Paul de Wet, 52nd minute
- Jeandré Rudolph for Cameron Hanekom, 52nd
- Jaco Grobbelaar for Cobus Wiese, 52nd
- Willie le Roux for Harold Vorster, 52nd
- Gerhard Steenekamp for Alulutho Tshakweni, 63rd
- Francois Klopper for Khutha Mchunu, 63rd
- Johan Grobbelaar for Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 72nd
- Stravino Jacobs for Sebastian de Klerk, 73rd
The four changes in the 52nd minute came with the score at 28-13 and the match still live. The Bulls scored four tries after them.
Where The Pool Goes From Here
Stade Français return to Paris with nothing from their first European match of the season and a points difference of minus 36 to carry into the rest of Pool 4.
The Bulls have five log points, eight tries and a home record intact at Loftus Versfeld, where they have now beaten Stade Français twice in their last two meetings at the ground.
Round 2 takes the Bulls to Montpellier on 12 December. They host Bath at Loftus Versfeld on 9 January and travel to Northampton on 15 January.
