The Bulls opened their Super Rugby campaign in the best possible fashion, dominating the Stormers from the opening whistle to claim an embarrassingly one-sided bonus-point victory at Loftus Versfeld.

Former South Africa Blizboks Sevens star Rosko Specman scored a brace of tries as he made a sensational Super Rugby debut for the Bulls, while Springboks fly-half Handre Pollard delivered a masterclass kicking display as the hosts defeated the Stormers 40-3 in Pretoria. Incredibly, Lood de Jager's team secured the only home win of the opening round, with all the other results going the way of the visiting teams.

Specman showed a fine combination of footwork and pace, the hallmarks of his play in Sevens, to complete his double before fellow wing Johnny Kotze touched down on the other side of the pitch to complete a wonderful team move. Pollard, meanwhile, kicked the conversions and a penalty goal as the hosts went to halftime leading 24-3.

Springboks centre Jesse Kriel crossed shortly after the break, completing a superb first-phase set play from a lineout when he collected a beautifully weighted chip kick from Pollard to score under the posts. Pollard kicked the conversion and three subsequent penalty goals from distance to finish the match with a 100 percent kicking record and man-of-the-match honours.

Kick-off was delayed by 20 minutes because of an accident on the N1 motorway close to Pretoria, which had resulted in the late arrival of the Stormers' bus at Loftus Versfeld, and the visitors frankly seemed never to come out of the changing rooms.

Much as the Bulls were good in all facets of the game, the Stormers were simply awful from the whistle and their troubles were exacerbated when captain Siya Kolisi left the field in the 27th minute following a head injury assessment.

Televison footage of the vistors' head coach, Robbie Fleck, looking nonplussed and bewildered midway through the first half will sadly be the key memory for fans of the Cape Town-based side, and Pieter-Steph du Toit's post-match comment that "we have a few small things to work on" likely will not be surpassed as the biggest understatement of the season.

The Bulls face the Jaguares in Buenos Aires in Round 2, while the Stormers will take on the Lions at Newlands.