Reds 19
Bulls 7
This is how rugby should be played - maximum commitment, maximum velocity, maximum entertainment.
The Reds started at such pace, making so many cuts, it seemed likely they'd turn the Bulls into hamburger.
Fullback Peter Hynes, excellent winger Digby Ioane and halfback Will Genia darted and ducked and lock Van
Humphries and flanker Scott Higginbotham were huge. They deliberately kept the ball in hand, avoiding the kick and the Bulls' feared lineout.
But the Bulls showed their resilience and efficiency with the first points of the match, a try to flanker (and former hooker) Derrick Kuhn. The Reds had attacked them at pace and with skill for the opening 10 minutes and yet, from a turnover 65 metres downfield, it was the Running Of The Bulls.
A lovely sidestep from fullback Zane Kirchner made the try, as did two forays by impressive flanker Dewald Potgieter before the Reds simply ran out of defenders as Kuhn slipped over. It was classic burgle-and-break. The Bulls looked more like the Crusaders than the Crusaders.
The Reds were becoming anxious as waves of attack broke fruitlessly on the granite rock of the Bulls' defence. They were doing all of the attacking; none of the scoring - until Genia spiralled away from a ruck and caressed a 60m kick near the Bulls' line.
Higginbotham - 110kg of aggressive Queenslander - had no business being in the chase for the ball against two Bulls backs. But he kept running at surprising pace and, as the goal line neared, outsprinted centres Stephen Dippenaar and Wynand Oliver to sprawl, gather and score a glorious try.
The Reds were 8-7 up at the break after a Quade Cooper penalty but the question was: who was more exhausted - the always-attacking Reds or the blockading Bulls? It was like watching George Foreman and Muhammad Ali all those years ago - the rope-a-dope concept; Ali letting Foreman punch himself out before coming off the ropes with lethal intent.
Two Cooper penalties got them out to 14-7 and the Bulls were blowing hard, with the Reds scrum taking charge and putting the squeeze on. It got to them. Of all things, the Bulls lost a lineout - yes, the Bulls.
A brilliant Reds movement followed, created by big centre Will Chambers, a former Melbourne Storm player making a fine fist of rugby.
He combined with Genia and produced a league-style offload for Cooper, second-five Anthony Faingaa, and Ioane all to handle and free the ball in the tackle for winger Rod Davies to score.
Then the dopes came off the ropes. The Bulls got their rolling maul going and, from an attacking scrum, loose forward Pedrie Wannenburg bulldozed over.
Steyn missed the conversion and, at 19-12 with 10 minutes to go, the Reds were suddenly under siege.
The Bulls forwards battered and bashed but the thin Red line held - and won one of the best Super 14 games this season.
Reds 19 (S. Higginbotham, R. Davies tries; Q. Cooper 3 pens); Bulls 12 (D. Kuhn, P. Wannenburg tries; M. Steyn con). Halftime: 8-7.
