Slow-brew Bulls do the business on poignant date at Loftus

It was less than the dynamic kind of Pedrie Wannenburg tribute the Bulls had hoped for, but they warmed enough to their task to repel Benetton 46-29 in a United Rugby Championship encounter at Loftus on Saturday.

As it happened | URC - Bulls v Benetton

"A difficult day ... but hopefully we can honour (the late loose forward icon, killed in a US car accident) with a good performance," captain Marcell Coetzee had said on television ahead of the kick-off in sunny Pretoria.

Truth be told, there were lengthy periods - they trailed at the interval - when the Bulls looked anything but a compelling force for the looming quarter-finals.

But they nevertheless took a crucial step toward the last eight with this full-house triumph, by six tries to two and featuring a much more clinical and intense second half from the hosts.

It boosted them to 48 points and - even if perhaps temporarily in the round - seventh on the overall standings with two games to go (Glasgow at the same venue on Friday, then away to Ospreys).

The outcome also amounted to sweet enough revenge for the 35-8 Rainbow Cup final humbling from the same foes in Treviso last June.

Benetton got their tails up in the sixth minute when Bulls centre Lionel Mapoe was pinged for offside by referee Mike Adamson and the visitors' fullback Rhyno Smith made no mistake off the tee.

The variety to their play was impressive - industrial mauling combined with slick hand-to-hand play and a willingness to move the ball from deep - and the Italians only needed another five minutes to nail the first try.

A ball went loose on the Bulls' quarter after Madosh Tambwe came within a whisker of effecting an intercept; alert centre Tommaso Menoncello hacked it through with the home defence out of