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Bulls are VICTORious again

Sat, 29 May 2010 19:00

We are the champions: The Bulls celebrate their third S14 victory - Pic: Rian Botes

The Bulls are champions! They were champions and they still are champions, beating the willing Stormers 25-17 at Orlando Stadium in Soweto in the Final of the 2010 Super 14, the last Super 14. It was another wonderful occasion in Soweto.

It was the Bulls' third Super 14 title in four years, also stretching their 'home' run to 20 consecution victories - putting the Bulls in second place on the all-time Super 14 list - only behind the seven-time champion Crusaders and sharing second place with the Blues.

They are also the third team to win back-to-back titles.

Dr Craven loved big rugby occasions. He said a Test match was a volksfees - a celebration for the nation. He would have approved of this volksfees in Soweto - the whole country engrossed in the final, a unifying of people thought disparate, loads of good cheer, a great game of enthusiastic rugby. There is not more the great Doc could have asked for.

Dignitaries were there - the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, who was due to leave but delayed his departure. "I could not lose this important moment of history-making in our country." The Leader of the Opposition, Helen Zille was there. As she is also the premier of the Western Cape she had no hesitation in declaring her support for the Stormers. "I have never been so excited since the last election."

The teams were introduced to the President and then there was the singing of the national anthem. The occasion was great and successful before the first whistle was blown. And the match that followed did not disappoint as two great sides went hammer and tongs at each other with nary a nasty deed, not even a cross look.

The Stormers may have scored two tries to one but the Bulls were really full value for their victory - dominating possession and territory as they sued muscle and cohesion to dominate the Stormers.

They were more disciplined  when it counted than the men from the Cape. Before the match several important people, including Frans Ludeke, Naas Botha and Victor Matfield had spoken about the importance of discipline, and their warnings came true. When the Stormers had conceded five penalties to nil, the Bulls led 9-0. Their final winning margin was eight points.

It was not that the Stormers were willful. The cracks came under pressure.

The Stormers, wearing their white strip, kicked off and from the start attacked. They made their intentions clear - they were going to run the ball. And that is what they tried throughout the match but they came up against a harsh defence that threw them back time and again and regularly won turnovers.

Their first attacked ended in a  turnover off Gio Aplon and led to a Bulls' attack that promised much till Gerhard van den Heever was tackled out. The Stormers had the first line-out but the Bulls took it off them and attacked again till a tackle by Duane Vermeulen on Matfield  dislodged the ball.

Early on both sides lost players. Andries Bekker was off for blood. Gerhard van den Heever damaged a hamstring and went off and then Juan de Jongh hobbled off looking miserable to be replaced by Tim Whitehead.

A run by Pierre Spies first threatened the Stormers' line but the defence held, as it did remarkably throughout the match bar one cleaver occasion.

Wicus Blaauw was penalised at the first Bulls' scrum and Morné Steyn goaled. 3-0 after nine minutes. The Stormers were penalised three times at collapsed scrums, yielding six points. Blaauw was penalised again when Fourie du Preez tapped a penalty and the prop tackled him inside 10 metres. 6-0 after 15 minutes.

François Louw had a powerful burst down the left. The Stormers went wide right and came back to the left where Burger got the ball down on the Bulls' line. The referee referred the matter to the TMO, whose advice was that Burger hand been short of the line and then tried to move the ball forward and should be penalised.

Vermeulen won a turnover but, falling to the ground, was penalised and Steyn made it 9-0 in 20 minutes

Before the match President Zuma expressed the wish to see a try. His wish came true in the most delightful way.

The Bulls went through harmless phases and were about to go right with Danie Rossouw in a good position to receive the ball when suddenly François Hougaard came off his left wing surreptitiously and Du Preez gave him a sweet, short pass. Hougaard sped between Louw and Bekker who were marking people who were really there, not nomadic ghosts. Away Hougaard sped, easily beating Joe Pietersen, who did not get close enough to touch him for a try 40 metres after he had taken the pass. 16-0 after 24 minutes.

The Stormers first tried turning a penalty into a line-out but, as the Bulls drove them back in the tackle, they accepted a penalty chance at goal when Rossouw was penalised. Grant goaled. 16-3 after 30 minutes.

The Bulls were penalised another six times in the match but Grant had only one chance to aim at goal and that was a long chance. The reason for this was simply that the Bulls laid claim to the Stormers' territory. That made the half-time score 16-3.

Then, suddenly, that great thief Bryan Habana pinched a try. Deon Stegmann won a turnover for the Bulls and Du Preez passed to Steyn on his right. Steyn passed quickly to his right but Habana jumped up and grabbed the high ball, setting off on a jog to the Bulls' posts. 16-10 after 53 minutes.

Were the Stormers coming back into the game?

Not really. Steyn still had three penalties in his armoury when JC Kritzinger was penalised at a scrum, Vermeulen at a tackle and Kritzinger at another scrum. That took the score to 25-10 and  the singing of Olé could be heard above  the buzzing of innumerable vuvuzelas as time marched on to a Bulls' victory.

The Stormers still had pride enough to throw themselves onto the attack Deon Fourie got it over and soon they were battering at the line till Ricky Januarie squeezed between Derick Kuün and Gürthro Steenkamp and dived. He was short but the ball went back for replacement Pieter Louw to score with three minutes to play. The Bulls easily kept the visitors in check for those three minutes.

Dr Craven also said that nobody commits suicide during a Test match because you live outside yourself and your problems. Nobody would have been tempted to commit suicide during this absorbing match either.

Man of the Match: The senior Bulls stood out - Victor Matfield, Wynand Olivier, Zane Kirchner, Pierre Spies, Gary Botha and Gürthro Steenkamp but reached the heights of skill and judgement that clever, skilled, energetic Fourie du Preez reached.

Villain of the Match: Nobody at all.

Moment of the Match. The try that François Hougaard scored, from the delicious pass that started it to the swanky dive that ended it.

Scorers:

For the Bulls:
Try: Hougaard
Con: Steyn
Pens: Steyn 6

For the Stormers:
Tries: Habana, Pieter Louw
Cons: Grant 2
Pen: Grant

The teams:

Bulls: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 Jaco Pretorius, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 François Hougaard, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Dewald Potgieter, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Danie Rossouw, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Gary Botha, 1 Gürthro Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Bees Roux, 18 Flip van der Merwe, 19 Derick Kuün, 20 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 21 Jaco van der Westhuyzen, 22 Pedrie Wannenburg.

Stormers: 15 Joe Pietersen, 14 Gio Aplon, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Juan de Jongh, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Francois Louw, 6 Schalk Burger (captain), 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Adriaan Fondse, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Tiaan Liebenberg, 1 Wicus Blaauw.
Replacements: 16 Deon Fourie, 17 JC Kritzinger, 18 Anton van Zyl, 19 Pieter Louw, 20 Ricky Januarie, 21 Willem de Waal, 22 Tim Whitehead.

Referee: Craig Joubert
Assistant referees: Cobus Wessels, Christie du Preez
Reserve referee: Mark Lawrence
TMO: Shaun Veldsman

By Paul Dobson 

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