Chiefs outmuscle rudderless Bulls
Sat, 22 Mar 2008 10:36
Unstoppable: Lelia Masaga adds five points
The Chiefs got their running game back on track to defeat an out-of-sorts Bulls team 43-27 in their Super 14 clash in Rotorua.
The home side had the upper hand in most facets of play and ran in six impressive tries to leave the defending champions in tatters.
All Hail the Chiefs!
They deserve the accolades of the whole of the Waikato. They did not look like a team suffering injury and defeat. They looked like a team filled with energy and optimism. They deserved their victory and even a bigger one.
Heart and soul play a big part in rugby. Today in the sulphurous town of Rotorua the Chiefs had heart and soul. The Bulls had neither heart nor soul as they crumbled to yet another thrashing. Forget the scoreline. They were thrashed worse than that. Champions last year full of heart and soul. Heart and soul have gone this year.
It's happened before in a way but not in as lunatic a way as the Bulls are managing. Champions last year they are probably the worst team in the Super 14 this year. The bulk of the champions of 2007 are in the side again this year but you would find that hard to believe if you watched the way they are playing. In 2001 the Crusaders did something like this but not as woefully.
The teams started level - two wins and eight points each, both with poor try-scoring records. When the final whistle went with the Chiefs battering at the Bulls' line you would not have believed that there was any level-pegging between the two sides. The Bulls were abject.
It is impossible to believe that they actually led until moments before half-time. After 21 minutes they led 21-0. Then they threw their hands in the air and surrendered. There are players who could be exonerated - Fourie du Preez, though even his shoulders sagged, Wikus van Heerden, Akona Ndungane and Wynand Olivier. But you would not want to go to war with the rest.
The Chiefs started their domination in the scrums. They outscrummed the big Bulls in every scrum. From there it carried over to the tackle/ruck. There they beat the largely absent Bulls hands down. Then it went to the backs where the Chiefs were always willing to have a go, test the defence, take chances, support, tease the Bulls who were content to sit back on their heels and hoof the ball. Their kicking was no more than a transfer of rare possession to the Chiefs.
The spark that lit the Chiefs' fire was scrumhalf Brendon Leonard whose energy and enterprise mean so much tot he Chiefs.
As long as nature's gifts lasted, the Bulls were in contention but that was only about a quarter of the game.
They scored first, attacking and going right from a scrum. Du Preez started it with a quick dart on the open side. From the tackle they went right again and Olivier dummied and broke past Dwayne Sweeney, easily beating Mils Muliaina to score a neat try. Derick Hougaard converted. 7-0. That became 10-0 when Sione Lauaki was penalised for being off-side.
They could have gone further ahead when Derick Kuün chased a flykick into the Chiefs' in-goal. He was ahead of Liam Messam in the race for the ball but failed to ground it. They also had a second five-metre line-out. At the first one they had lost the ball and for the second one they knocked on.
That was more or less it for the Bulls apart from that flourish in the second half when the game was well lost.
The Chiefs attacked. Muliaina grubbered but Ndungane was back to gather and kick clear. His kick got into the Chiefs' half where Lauaki gathered the ball. The bulky No.8 with the eccentric hairdo chipped, chased, collected and passed the ball to Leonard who sped off some 30 metres to score. For some reason Stephen Donald missed the conversion. His kicking has not been good but - wonderful to relate - that was the last kick he missed all night.
Another counterattack by the Chiefs, with Leonard twice prominent, ended over the Bulls' line but Simms Davison was adjudged by the television match official to have knocked the ball on in grounding it. A close call.
Then just before the half time the Chiefs, who enjoyed far greater possession, attacked but their attack faltered momentarily till Callum Bruce snapped up the ball and ran through a half-hearted tackle by Rayno Gerber to score at the posts. Donald converted and the half-time whistle went with the Chiefs leading 12-10.
Two minutes into the second half Du Preez was penalised for being off-side at a scrum and Donald made it 15-10.
The Chiefs time had come. They bashed at the Bulls line and Leonard tapped a free kick and ducked over to score. 22-10.
For some reason Hougaard dropped a goal. 22-13. but five minutes later the Chiefs had the bonus point as sweet passing to the right put Sweeney over for the try. 29-13.
The Bulls, believe it or not, tried to counterattack going right but Steyn lost the ball forward in a tackle. Deon Stegman knocked it on further and then Leonard snapped it up and went scampering off on the Chiefs' right. Lelia Masaga beat three Bulls in a confined space before surfing over for a try in Gürthro Steenkamp's tackle. 36-13.
The Bulls stirred a loin. From a penalty-induced five-metre line-out Kuün was close. When he was stopped Du Preez pooped the ball to Stegman who managed to force his way over. 36-13.
Then came the strangest try.
The Bulls were defending when Du Preez kicked a high ball down the touch-line on this right. Viliame Waqaseduadua lost the ball entirely and it bounced high. Galloping after the ball was Ndungane. He snatched it from the attempted grasp of Waqaseduadua and went half the length of the field to score. 36-27.
Would the Bulls storm to an unexpected victory? Would they at least get a bonus-point try? The hopes were hopelessly in vain.
Steyn, who has the vaguest of vague ideas of positional play for a fullback, conceded a five-metre scrum from which the Chiefs bashed till Messam ran passed Danie Rossouw, who may or may not have touched him, and scored near the posts. 43-27 and it was close to being 50.
The Bulls have had disciplinary problems this year. True to form JP Nel was spoken to and true to form they got a yellow card. Just when it seemed that they would not get one, Danwel Demas was penalised for a deliberate knock-on when the Chiefs were on their way to scoring a try.
Man of the Match: Brendon Leonard. He was the heart and soul, the energy and the enterprise of the Bulls' win.
Moment of the Match: Leonard's first try, from the moment Sione Lauaki chipped the ball. It was the start of victory.
Villain of the Match: Danwel Demas, one supposes.
The scorers:
For the Chiefs:
Tries: Leonard 2, Bruce, Sweeney,
Masaga, Messam
Cons: Donald 5
Pens: Donald
For the Bulls:
Tries: Olivier, Stegman, Ndungane
Cons: Hougaard 3
Pen: Hougaard
DG: Hougaard
Teams:
Chiefs: 15 Mils Muliaina (captain), 14 Lelia Masaga, 13 Dwayne Sweeney, 12 Callum Bruce, 11 Viliame Waqaseduadua, 10 Stephen Donald, 9 Brendon Leonard, 8 Sione Lauaki, 7 Tanerau Latimer, 6 Liam Messam, 5 Kevin O'Neill, 4 Toby Lynn, 3 Ben Castle, 2 Tom Willis, 1 Simms Davison.
Replacements: 16 Aled de Malmanche, 17 Ben May, 18 Jay Williams, 19 Faifili Levave, 20 David Bason, 21 Murray Williams, 22 Roimata Hansell-Pune.
Bulls: 15 Morné Steyn, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 JP Nel, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Danwel Demas, 10 Derick Hougaard, 9 Fourie du Preez (captain), 8 Pedrie Wannenburg, 7 Wikus van Heerden
(vice-captain), 6 Deon Stegman, 5 Danie Rossouw, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Rayno Gerber, 2 Derick Kuün, 1 Gurthro Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Werner Kruger, 18 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 19 Hilton Lobberts, 20 Heini Adams, 21 Stephan Dippenaar, 22 Dewald Potgieter.
Referee: James Leckie (Australia)
Touch judges: Lyndon Bray (New Zealand), James Sholtens (Australia)
TMO: Glenn Newman
