Sunwolves open their account with 21-20 win against Bulls

Sunwolves 21-20 Bulls, Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium
Scorecard

Sunwolves finally managed to open their account as a late penalty from Yu Tamura helped them edge out Bulls by 21-20 in their Super Rugby encounter at Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

Number eight Rahboni Warren-Vosayaco scored an early try for Sunwolves which came in the sixth minute and was followed by another conversion from Hayden Cripps to take them to a eight point lead.

Bulls bounced back with a touchdown from Burger Odendaal followed by a conversion from Tiaan Schoeman to bring down the difference to one point. Cripps and Schoeman exchanged penalties as the one point lead of Sunwolves remained intact at half time.

Schoeman with his second penalty at the start of the second half brought Bulls to two point lead which got increased to nine after Travis Ismaiel rumbled past the post.

A yellow card to Bulls centre Jan Serfontein changed the complexion of the game as Takaaki Nakazuru went past the line in the 70th minute and Tamura added the conversion to bring down the trail to two points. Tamura had an impactful game as he kicked another penalty in the 75th minute to seal a thrilling one point win for the hosts.

Despite the win, Sunwolves are at last in the Africa 1 Group while Bulls are positioned third.