United Rugby Championship: Scarlets mauled 57-12 by Bulls

Scarlets' Aaron Shingler tackles Bulls' Johan Grobbelaar

Scarlets suffered a 57-12 thrashing in Pretoria as Bulls ran in nine tries for a one-sided victory.

Hooker Johannes Grobbelaar and number eight Marcell Coetzee crossed twice apiece in mostly one-way traffic, with Sione Kalamafoni and Rob Evans replying late in either half.

The depleted visitors could not match Bulls' power and pace at altitude.

Bulls climbed to sixth in the table while Scarlets have four wins from 11 in a stop-start campaign.

The home side ran in first-half tries from Canan Moodie, ex-Ulster player Coetzee, Cyle Brink, Grobbelaar and Elrigh Louw for a 31-7 interval lead, with Ruan Nortje, Grobbelaar, Coetzee and Rob Hunt turning the screw in the second period. Chris Smith converted five and Morne Steyn one.

Scarlets, beaten 37-20 by Sharks seven days earlier, endured a difficult return to South Africa after their previous attempt to play the fixtures in November and December saw them trapped by a Covid-19 outbreak.

But the Bulls showed no ill-effects from playing three games in seven days, striking after just 80 seconds as Louw's burst from an attacking scrum put winger Moodie over.

Full-back Kurt-Lee Arendse had a spectacular effort ruled out for a forward pass, but the tourists' relief was short-lived as another lightning move down the right ended with captain Coetzee ploughing over.

Scarlets flanker Aaron Shingler was forced off with a knee injury after just 12 minutes, and the one-sided nature of the contest continued with flanker Brink and hooker Grobbelaar bagging close-range tries to make it 24-0 in 25 minutes with the bonus point in the bag.

The Bulls' forward power continued to show as Louw powered over on the half-hour mark, before the visitors finally managed an attack with Ryan Conbeer halted just short and replacement Kalamafoni bursting over for Patchell to convert.

Welsh hopes of matching Munster's valiant comeback against Bulls the previous week were hit in the first minute of the second period, as full-back Ioan Nicholas was sin-binned for a clumsy aerial challenge on Tambwe.

Bulls stepped up the entertainment levels even further as giant lock Nortje pulled off a remarkable interception dash from half-way as he picked off a Dane Blacker pass, before a brilliant team try from deep was finished off by Grobbelaar.

The soft surface cut up and both teams used replacements early, but late efforts from Coetzee and Hunt allowed the Bulls to finish with a flourish before Evans barged over in the final move on his comeback.

The match provided a powerful reminder of the likely title challenge from the Southern Hemisphere now that South African sides are able to stage home games.

Bulls: Kurt-Lee Arendse; Canan Moodie, Cornal Hendricks, Harold Vorster, Madosh Tambwe; Chris Smith, Zak Burger; Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar, Jacques van Rooyen, Walt Steenkamp, Ruan Nortje, Marcell Coetzee (capt), Cyle Brink, Elrigh Louw.

Replacements: Joe van Zyl, Simphiwe Matanzima, Robert Hunt, Reinhardt Ludwig, Arno Botha, Keagan Johannes, Morne Steyn, Lionel Mapoe.

Scarlets: Ioan Nicholas; Steff Evans, Johnny Williams, Scott Williams (capt), Ryan Conbeer; Rhys Patchell, Dane Blacker; Kemsley Mathias, Dafydd Hughes, Javan Sebastian, Sam Lousi, Jac Price, Aaron Shingler, Tomas Lezana, Blade Thomson.

Replacements: Shaun Evans, Rob Evans, Harri O'Connor, Morgan Jones, Sione Kalamafoni, Archie Hughes, Sam Costelow, Joe Roberts.

Referee: Chris Busby (IRFU)

Assistants: Cwengile Jadezweni & Griffon Colby (SARU)

TMO: Sam Grove-White (SRU).