Bulls stay top in thriller

The Bulls maintained their 100 percent record in this year's Super 14 with a come-from-behind victory over the Hurricanes at Loftus Versfeld.

Hurricanes were on top in the first-half but failed to carry their momentum through to the second as the home side showed just why they are top of the table after five games.

Back to their counter-attacking best, the New Zealanders latched onto any piece of possession spilled over to them by their hosts and took their chances brilliantly by scoring two well-earned tries in the first half.

Karl Lowe and Jeremy Thrush both crossed for the visitors but Zane Kirchner responded for the Bulls, and three penalties after the interval from Morne Steyn were enough to give the South Africans the win.

Steyn uncharacteristically failed to open the scoring from 30 metres and the Bulls were caught by surprise after 14 minutes when their opponents mounted a strong attack that saw the ball move from left to right.

Quick hands

The ball passed through quick hands to allow Lowe to touch down and although Willie Ripia missed the extras, he redeemed himself by converting the Hurricanes' second score inside the first quarter.

A quick tap-penalty by Ma'a Nonu caught the home side unawares allowing lock Thrush to dive over under the posts, with Ripia slotting the two to make it 12-0.

But a thrilling passage of play saw the Bulls finally get off the mark, with Kirchner fed by Gerhard van den Heever to slide over on the right.

Steyn added the two points before trading penalties with Ripia before the break as the visitors led 15-10.

Another exchange of kicks soon after the restart saw Steyn cross the 100-point mark for the season and Bulls' pressure forced the Hurricanes into a number of errors, and when Nonu failed to roll away Steyn was able to narrow the deficit to a single point.

With less than 20 minutes left Victor Vito was sin-binned for repeatedly infringing and with Hurricanes struggling to contain the attack Steyn was given the chance to step up and put his side in front for the first time, which he duly did.

The fight seemed to have gone from the visitors after that, as they settled for a losing bonus point.