Bulls battle back but fall to spirited Scarlets in eight-try thriller

The Bulls shredded a 20-point deficit, came within two points of tying the scores but went down 37-28 to the Scarlets in Llanelli, Wales, on Friday night.

It was a pulsating, if sometimes error-riddled, United Rugby Championship game that served up four tries apiece and plenty of entertainment, especially if you were wearing red at Parc y Scarlets.

The Bulls had a confident start to the match when they crossed the try line first through scrumhalf Zak Burger with five minutes on the clock.

RECAP | Scarlets v Bulls

But Scarlets showed early that they weren’t prepared to be outdone in front of their partisan crowd.

Flanker Dan Davis got the home side’s first score, which looked like he corkscrewed over the line but the TMO found no double movement.

Soon after, prop Kemsley Mathias struck again for Scarlets, who were using the crowd momentum to unsettle the Bulls and it worked.

The Bulls, now dragged into a melee, decided to play the open, unstructured game that Scarlets clearly favoured on the night and created a glorious opening for Ruan Vermaak to run through the middle.

But the lock forward, who made a brilliant straight run to find the space, lacked a basic pass that would have put Burger in for his second try.

Davis ripped the Bulls open, breaking the line and burrowing through before offloading. Scarlets put a kick through and scrumhalf Gareth Davies gathered the ball with nothing but vacant Bulls land in front of him.

Scarlets suffered a huge blow to their momentum when, at 34 minutes, they lost Joe Roberts to the sin bin after the outside centre was caught off feet at the ruck, preventing a Bulls attack.

Wing Stravino Jacobs capitalised immediately, scoring in the left corner after fielding a Johan Goosen cross-kick to touch