Captain Reniel Hugo scored a brace of tries as the Cheetahs beat the Bulls 28-10 in a pre-season match in Harare on Saturday.

Both fielded youthful sides, but it’s the Cheetahs who will come away from Zimbabwe with a pleasing result after producing a solid performance.

Hugo scored twice in the first half as the Cheetahs opened up a handy 14-3 lead at half-time. After the break, Bulls coach Nollis Marais made a number of substitutions, which helped to inject a bit more energy into their game, and there was some reward when Tian Schoeman went over for a try.

However, after a number of scrum infringements, the Cheetahs were then awarded two penalty tries, which not only sealed the result, but gave the Bulls coaches an obvious point of concern ahead of the Super Rugby season.

The Bulls will open their Super Rugby campaign against the Stormers on 27 February, while the Cheetahs kick off their season against the Jaguars the day before.

Bulls – 15 Divan Rossouw, 14 Kefentse Mahlo, 13 Dries Swanepoel, 12 Dan Kriel, 11 Jade Stighling, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Piet van Zyl, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, 6 Freddy Ngoza, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Lizo Gqoboka.
Subs: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Pierre Schoeman, 18 Nqoba Mxoli, 19 Irne Herbst, 20 Riekert Hattingh, 21 Ivan van Zyl, 22 Francois Brummer, 23 JT Jackson, 24 Jamba Ulengo.

Photo: Johan Pretorius/Gallo Images