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Blue Bulls prevail at Newlands

Saturday 21st July 2007

Bulls No.10 Morné Steyn scored 16 very valuable points

The Blue Bulls scored an impressive 26-17 Absa Currie Cup win over Western Province at Newlands on Saturday, resisting prolonged spells of home team pressure in a scrappy match.

It may have been a rugby match. It certainly was a conflict, not all of it edifying. The start to the match was most inauspicious - a spate of penalties against the team taking the ball into the tackle with a cry/plea for a "fair contest". But the fair contest principle appeared not to apply to line-outs and scrums or other aspects of the tackle and its surrounds. The result was many a private battle of a crabby kind.

The unpleasantness tapered off - but did not entirely disappear.

Under new management the Western Province side got stuck in with a will and, as one would expect, the Blue Bulls got stuck in straight back. Western Province ran more which, in the context of the game, meant they incurred more penalties.

Morné Steyn kicked one of them over after four minutes but Peter Grant who had a henry Honiball-esque game, kicked one over after 11 minutes.

The Blue Bulls were having trouble in the line-outs - odd for a team which has Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha amongst its contracted players. But they won one and from the 10-metre line Steyn sent a drop-goal soaring between the uprights. 6-3 to the Blue Bulls after 25 minutes.

If the Blue Bulls had trouble in the line-outs Western Province had a lot of trouble in the scrums and were penalised at no fewer than four.

Johan Wasserman, captaining the Blue Bulls who had a silly match, was sent to the sin bin for a tackle, high and late, on Tonderai Chavhanga, but Western Province were unable to gain out of his absence and half-time came at 6-3.

Steyn kicked a second penalty early in the second half and then it was Western Province who ran and seemed to have the best scoring chances - till the Blue Bulls scored that is. Mind you Western Province thought they had scored a try when the big Fijian flier Sireli Naqelevuki flew down the left wing and was over in the corner, but the touch judged had espied a sliver of heal on the touch-line. When Western Province players shouted at the touch judge, the incident was referred to the TMO and it was there for all to see that Naqelevuki had indeed stepped on the touch-line.

Penalties got the Blue Bulls onto the attack and then Western Province carried the ball back into the in-goal. They threw the ball at full-back Conrad Jantjes who kicked to clear but his kick was charged down and the ball went over the dead-ball line, thus conceding a five-metre scrum. The Blue Bulls made a maul and drove over. After umpteen replays the TMO advised that flanker-turned-hooker Derick Kuun had scored a try. Steyn converted.

Still Western Province were the ones playing the creative rugby.

Brent Russell came on and had a great run down the right to put Western Province on the attack. Johan Roets, who had another fine match, was forced to run the ball out seven metres from his line and Western Province drove the subsequent line-out maul over the line for a try for enthusiastic captain Luke Watson. The outpouring of glee from the Western Province players spoke of their desire to win.

Right from the kick-off they attacked and again got close as Jantjes, Dylan des Fountain and Russell raced down the right.

But back came the Blue Bulls and Steyn sat back and dropped a long goal. The referee was unsure but Jantjes was on hand to tell him that the kick was over, an act of sportsmanship that shone all the brighter against the background of ill manners.

Penalties gave Western Province three successive five-metre line-outs, the third accompanied by a yellow card for replacement Jacques-Louis Potgieter. From the third, Western Province mauled, Watson broke loose and played to Grant who juggled, stretched and scored near the posts with Dewald Potgieter trying to gainsay him. Grant converted and the difference was close, until Western Province, in a spate of reckless enthusiasm committed suicide of a sort. They ran out of deep defence, their handling went awry and left-wing Trompie Nontshinga snapped up the ball and raced over for a try which Steyn converted.

It was a game of more passion than skill.

Man of the batch: WP's Conrad Jantjes, who played magnificently and gave us that gem of sportsmanship.

The scorers:

For Western Province:
Tries: Watson, Grant
Cons: Grant 2
Pen: Grant

For the Blue Bulls:
Tries: Louw, Nontshinga
Cons: Steyn 2
Pens: Steyn 2
DG: Steyn 2

Yellow cards: Wassermann (30, Blue Bulls, late tackle), Potgieter (72, Blue Bulls, killing the ball)

Teams:

Western Province: 15 Conrad Jantjes, 14 Sireli Naqelevuki, 13 Dylan Des Fountain, 12 De Wet Barry, 11 Tonderai Chavhanga, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Paul Delport, 8 Robbie Diack, 7 Gerrie Britz, 6 Luke Watson (captain), 5 Selborne Boome, 4 Ross Skeate, 3 Eddie Andrews, 2 Schalk Brits, 1 JD Moller.
Replacements: 16 Tiaan Liebenberg, 17 Brock Harris, 18 Andries Bekker, 19 Pieter Louw, 20 Bolla Conradie, 21 Corné Uys, 22 Brent Russell.

Blue Bulls: 15 Johan Roets, 14 Trompie Nontshinga, 13 JP Nel, 12 Wayne Julies, 11 Marius Delport, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Neil Powell, 8 Dewald Potgieter, 7 Johan Wasserman (captain), 6 Hottie Louw, 5 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 4 Cliff Milton, 3 Rayno Gerber, 2 Derick Kuün, 1 Jaco Engels.
Replacements: 16 James van der Walt, 17 Werner Kruger, 18 Deon Stegmann, 19 Ruan Vermeulen, 20 JP Joubert, 21 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 22 Stefan Basson.

Referee: Willie Roos (SARU)
Touch judges: Phillip Bosch (SARU), Louis Mzomba (Western Province)
Television match official: Michael Cupido (Golden Lions)
Assessor: Dennis Immelman