Strauss hat-trick gets Bulls back on track

Adriaan Strauss punished ill-discipline from the Stormers to score a hat-trick and help the Bulls climb off the foot of Super Rugby’s South African Conference table with a 33-23 win.

After beating the Hurricanes in round one, the Bulls had lost four matches in a row prior to this much-needed triumph at Loftus Versfeld.

Former South Africa hooker Strauss crossed for tries in the sixth, 17th and 46th minute – his second and third scores each coming when the Stormers had been reduced to 14 men through respective sin-binnings for Damian de Allende and Pieter-Steph du Toit.

John-Ben Kotze and Jesse Kriel also went over for the Bulls, the latter’s 70th-minute score effectively securing victory after the Stormers had cut their deficit to three points.

The Stormers had trailed by 13 after 32 minutes, but two tries in quick succession from Jan de Klerk and De Allende got them right back into the contest before Siya Kolisi responded to Strauss’ third touchdown.

The Vodacom Bulls are back to winning ways with an impressive win over the DHL Stormers. #VodacomSuperRugby pic.twitter.com/Hc3gulvVbH

— Springboks (@Springboks) March 31, 2018