Cardiff's URC play-off hopes take blow in heavy defeat against Bulls

Cardiff saw their United Rugby Championship play-off hopes suffer a blow at the hands of the Bulls, despite a late rally in Pretoria.

The hosts took advantage of an error-strewn first half from Matt Sherratt's side, running in four tries courtesy of Harold Vorster, Wilco Louw, Canan Moodie and Cameron Hanekom to take full control of the contest Sebastian de Klerk then completed a second-half brace to extend the hosts' lead, which never looked like being overtaken, even in the face of a late Cardiff fightback.

Alex Mann crashed over shortly after the interval, while late scores from Teddy Williams and Gabe Hamer-Webb brought the visitors on the brink of a bonus point, only to fall short on what was a largely chastening afternoon.

Cardiff will now likely need to take something from their second match in South Africa if they are to book their place in the top eight, with the Stormers lying in wait next week.

After an impressive win at home to Munster last time out, this was something of a reality check for Sherratt's men, who were eased onto the back foot more or less from the off here.

Johan Goosen got the hosts up and running with a penalty after just four minutes, which arrived on the back of an early demonstration of the home side's superiority in the set-piece.

Three minutes later, Bulls had the first try. Johann Grobbelaar's offload opened up some space for Moodie, whose dinked kick found Vorster, and he raced away to score.

The withdrawal of Goosen through injury might have perhaps put a pin in some of the early jubilation of the hosts, but the Bulls only tightened their grip on the contest as the first half wore on.

First, Louw muscled his way over for a second, before Willie le Roux got the better of Hamer-Webb to get on