Bonus point Bulls stay unbeaten as Piardi's pedantic whistle sours Loftus spectacle

At Loftus

The Bulls will embark on their three-match URC tour next week with three wins from as many starts after a comfortable, bonus point 28-14 victory over Connacht at Loftus on Friday night.

Jake White's troops overcame a trio inconveniences in the form of knocks to two key players in Johan Grobbelaar and Canan Moodie - both seemed to be taken off as precautions - a referee in Italian Andrea Piardi whose whistle, at best, was as attritional as his national rugby team from the 1990s, and three yellow cards.

RECAP | United Rugby Championship - Bulls v Connacht

The hosts' dominance was in stark contrast to last season's corresponding fixture, when the Bulls had to contend with Galway's howling winds and a slick, direct Irish combination.

Inspired by the robustness of Walt Steenkamp and Ruan Nortje, their two brilliant locks, the Bulls were given front-foot ball whenever play was allowed to carry on without the intervention from the whistle.

Marcell Coetzee's try was the best illustration of the home side's ability to make their close range phase play count, but they were hamstrung on other occasions by needlessly conceding attacking breakdown penalties or some suspect handling.

There were some pleasing moments of initiative too, notably when Cornal Hendricks and Moodie interlinked beautifully to set up Zak Burger's first of two tries before David Kriel - who'd thrown away a potential try of his own by chipping ahead instead of backing his pace - deftly completed a pop pass to a galloping Nortje, who broke and then released Burger again.

However, as much as the Bulls showed composure in dealing with Piardi's awkward officiating as well as repelling Connacht's clueless attacking shape for the first 50 minutes, it was perhaps