The Bulls had a penalty shot to snatch the win in the final 20 seconds of the game after the Red Devils were penalised for an infringement at the breakdown, but it didn’t quite have the legs.

Both sides had unsuccessful attempts to claim the lead in the closing stages. The Bulls missed another a shot a couple of minutes earlier and the Red Devils one with around five minutes to go, after outside centre Aisea Raitala had with just over 18 minutes on the clock scored the Red Devils third try to, with the conversion, tie up the scores.

It was a confidence-boosting result for the Red Devils and came after they conceded a try inside the first couple of minutes from a fumble at the kick-off.

“I think it was just a miss-read,” coach Jason Waerea said.

“But I was thrilled with the way they centered themselves without me having to send any messages out.”

They worked their way back into the game, winger Peter Ford plucking an intercept and running away 70m to put the Red Devils ahead. But they had to switch quickly back into defensive mode after knocking-on the kick-off. Adding further insult they lost half-back Zac Harris for 10, as the Bulls reclaimed the lead.

They took a little while but eventually broke through, five-eighth Dan Sweeney kicking cross field and finding fullback Kyle O’Connor on the fly.

Harris redeemed himself on half-time, taking a quick tap and scoring, Darrell Morrison adding the extras to give the Red Devils the lead 14-13 at the break.

It was short-lived though with the Bulls scoring a couple of minutes into the second half.

Sweeney kicked them out to a converted try lead a few minutes later, which they held until Raitala picked up a loose pass from Sanimo Navatu and scorched the Bulls defence.

“For their first real contest I was pretty happy,” Waerea said.

The only slight he really had was the penalty count getting a bit loose in parts and a couple of missed opportunities.

He alluded to one point where they were dominant for about 12 minutes in the Bulls zone but just couldn’t finish off.

“We didn’t quite get the patterns of play right,” he said.

Generally though the attack had a promising fluidity to it.

“We did what we said we wanted to do. We tried to play a bit wider,” he said.

One of the most pleasing aspects was their defence. They twice had the added strain of being down a player but limited the Bulls to a try.

“They did really well to hold their line, that is very hard to do,” Waerea said.

They were also very strong over the ball at the breakdown forcing a few turnovers at critical times, and strong in the lineout.

“We talked about not being too flash but fast in the air,” he said.

He said he could have thrown a blanket over a few players for their best, but did single out Sanimo Navatu, Will Archer and Harris.

“He (Harris) did what we wanted him to do,” he said.

“He’s allowed the backline to be a little bit more fluid with the ball.”