Blue Bulls outmuscle champions
Sat, 12 Jul 2008 20:43
The Blue Bulls secured their third win of the Currie Cup season on Saturday, beating the Cheetahs 31-23 at Loftus Versfeld, but failed to secure a vital bonus point.
Both the Blue Bulls and the Cheetahs were struggling with their strong points in the opening minutes of the match with Cheetahs losing line-out ball on their own throw in and the Bulls penalised for not binding in the scrum.
The Blue Bulls drew first blood after a superb hand-off by Pedrie Wannenburg and beating three defenders before flipping the pass to Akona Ndungane who scored in the left hand corner.
The first half was a tightly fought battle between the two archrivals. The Blue Bulls played a more expansive game than they are known for and tested the Cheetah defence.
The Cheetahs defence managed to hold firm but handling errors gave the Bulls a plethora of ball.
Two late penalties by either side saw the Bulls go in with an 11-9 lead into the break - a scoreline which was a fair reflection of the play thus far.
Five minutes into the second half the Cheetahs scored their first try with Jongi Nokwe chipping a kick over the Blue Bulls defenders'heads.
Blue Bulls centre Marius Delport touched the ball with his fingertips, but the ball bounced perfect for Nokwe who touched the ball down.
With 18,649 faithful having descended upon Loftus despite the cold weather, they now had to deal with rain coming down as well as a Cheetah onslaught.
But the Blue Bulls hit back minutes later with Wynand Olivier painlessly sliding over for the Bulls' second try.
Fourie du Preez made his long awaited appearance in the place of JP Joubert and showed his worth from the word go with secure line kicks.
The game was pretty much out of the Cheetahs' reach with the Bulls' third try. Danie Rossouw scored when Morne Steyn ran into a wide gap after the Bulls stole a Cheetah line-out ball.
The Cheetahs' however did not give up and kept on attacking the Blue Bull line. Six minutes from full-time, the Cheetahs were in a favourable position to close the gap.
After a first pushover scrum attempt went to a TMO decision and was declined, Hendro Scholtz scored their second try and a Chris Rossouw conversion brought them within five points of the hosts.
Steyn had the last say of the match slotting over his fourth penalty in the last minute, sending the Cheetahs home with their second loss of the season and denying them a bonus point in the
process.
The Blue Bulls unfortunately failed to secure the bonus point fourth try, which would have seen them reign over the competition standings - they've had to settle for second place behind the Sharks after the weekend's full results.
The scorers:
For the Blue Bulls:
Tries: Ndungane, Olivier, Rossouw
Cons: Steyn 2
Pens: Steyn
4
For the Cheetahs:
Tries: Nokwe, Scholtz
Cons: Rossouw 2
Pens: Rossouw 3
The teams:
Blue Bulls: 15 Tiger Mangweni, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 Marius Delport, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 John Mametsa, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 JP Joubert, 8 Pedrie Wannenburg, 7 Wikus van Heerden (captain), 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 4 Danie Rossouw, 3 Rayno Gerber, 2 Derick Kuün, 1 Jaco Engels.
Replacements: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Werner Kruger, 18 Francois van Schouwenburg, 19 Jacques Burger, 20 Fourie du Preez, 21 Burton Francis, 22 Zane Kirchner.
FS Cheetahs: 15 Bevin Fortuin, 14 Eddie Fredericks, 13 JW Jonker, 12 Hendrik Meyer, 11 Jongi Nokwe, 10 Chris Rossouw, 9 Neil Powell, 8 Schalk van der Merwe, 7 Hendro Scholtz (captain), 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Barend Pieterse, 4 Flip van der Merwe, 3 Kobus
Calldo, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Wian du Preez.
Replacements: 16 Jaco du Toit, 17 Phillip Lemmer, 18 David de Villiers, 19 Darron Nel, 20 Tewis de Bruyn, 21 Robert Ebersohn, 22 Fabian Juries.
Referee: Marius Jonker
Touch judges: Sindile Mayende, Cobus Wessels
TMO: Mark Lawrence
SAPA
