Blue Bulls win battle at Loftus
The Blue Bulls confirmed their status as tournament favourites by beating Western Province 30-22 in an enthralling Currie Cup tussle at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
The Blue Bulls confirmed their status as tournament favourites by beating Western Province 30-22 in an enthralling Currie Cup tussle at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
The home side outscored WP three tries to one to move to second place in the Currie Cup standings. In stark contrast to last week's encounter at Loftus, opposing fly-halves Francois Brummer and Willem de Waal between them kicked over all twelve of their attempts at goal.
The visitors will return to Cape Town ruing a number of missed opportunities after their backline failed to capitalise on the sterling work of their forward pack.
It's a rare thing to see a team take on the Bulls at their own forward/fly-half orientated game, but the Province heavies and De Waal made their hosts work for every inch on the field.
There was an almighty war up front with Bulls openside Jacques Burger impressing while, as mentioned above, De Waal and Brummer were both flawless from the kicking tee.
As it turned out, it was the Blue Bulls backs that made the difference, with Wynand Olivier and Francois Hougaard in particular putting in eye-catching performances while Gerhard van den Heever scored twice to reinforce his reputation as a star wing of the future.
De Waal opened the scoring when Dewald Potgieter was caught off-side early on, but the Bulls found their way over the try-line within five minutes of kick-off. The home pack's driving play had the WP defence backpedaling when Wynand Olivier sold the opposition midfield a massive dummy to break the line before sending a pinpoint pass out to Van den Heever. The young flyer finished off in the corner to give the Blue Bulls the lead – a lead which they would never relinquish.
Potgieter was ahead of the kicker for the second time in five minutes to allow De Waal to land his second penalty and narrow the gap to one point.
Province did all the playing for the next quarter of an hour and were looking promising, but the Blue Bulls would strike next.
When visiting backs conspired to put the ball on the grass within sight of the line, Jaco Pretorius pounced on the loose ball and charged up field before off-loading to Van den Heever, who touched down 95 metres from where WP had turned over possession.
The WP scrum earned another penalty for De Waal to thump over from 45 metres before the Bulls clung on for too long at a ruck and the visiting fly-half kicked his fourth three-pointer of the half.
Brummer replied with a penalty of his own as the hooter sounded to leave the score at 17-12 to the hosts at half-time and Province would be playing catch-up rugby until the final whistle.
The 20-year-old Bulls fly-half got the ball rolling in the second half with a long-range drop goal before Gurthrö Steenkamp used his power to crash over. Brummer maintained his perfect record from the kicking tee with the conversion to make the score 27-12.
That Sparked a massive fight back from the men in the blue and white hoops, who set camp in the Bulls 22 metre area.
Province captain Watson scored off the back of a huge maul from his pack to put the visitors back in the game and De Waal added the extras narrow the gap to eight points.
The last twenty minutes proved to be frenetic as Province threw the kitchen sink at the home defence. Watson will regret his decision not to take the three points on offer from a penalty in front of the posts after an extended WP siege on the Bulls' line ended as a fruitless operation.
De Waal did reduce the gap with eight minutes remaining, but by then the horse had bolted. Brummer slotted three more points to seal the game for the men in light blue when Gio Aplon lashed out with boot with full-time on the horizon.
The WP backline's disappointing game wassummed up in the final minute when Olivier made a try-saving tackle on Sireli Naqelevuki, who had three men on his outside and an open try line in front of them. A losing bonus point went a begging in the process.
It's back to the drawing board for the Capetonians, who face the Cheetahs at Newlands next week while the Bulls take their title campaign to Durban where they face the defending champions in a rematch of last year's final.
The Scorers
For the Blue Bulls:
Tries:Van den Heever 2, Steenkamp
Cons: Brummer 3
Pens: Brummer 2
Drops: Brummer
For Western Province:
Try: Watson
Con: De Waal
Pens: De Waal 5
Blue Bulls: 15 Tiger Mangweni, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 Jaco Pretorius, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Francois Hougaard, 10 Francois Brummer, 9 Heini Adams, 8 Dries van Schalkwyk, 7 Dewald Potgieter, 6 Jacques Burger, 5 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 4 Flip van der Merwe, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Derick Kuün (c), 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Frik Kirsten, 18 Jaco Engels, 19 Fudge Mabeta, 20 Gerrit-Jan van Velze, 21 JC Roos, 22 Marius Delport.
Western Province: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 Frikkie Welsh, 13 Morgan Newman, 12 Peter Grant, 11 Sireli Naqelevuki, 10 Willem de Waal, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Luke Watson (c), 7 Pieter Louw, 6 Pieter Myburgh, 5 Anton van Zyl, 4 Chris Jack, 3 Brock Harris, 2 Tiaan Liebenberg, 1 Wicus Blaauw.
Replacements: 16 Hanyani Shimange, 17 JD Moller, 18 De Kock Steenkamp, 19 Deon Fourie, 20 Conrad Hoffmann, 21 Juan de Jongh, 22 Tonderai Chavhanga.
Referee: Mark Lawrence
Assistant referees: Tiaan Jonker/Lourens van der Merwe, Christie du Preez Television match official: Johann Meuwesen