ISG Pumas off to a winning start
The home team defended well and played at a tempo the Blue Bulls could not cope with
The ISG Pumas got off to a brilliant start to their defence of the SuperSport Rugby Challenge title with a 29-21 win over the Vodacom Blue Bulls at Mbombela Stadium on Friday night.
The Pumas outscored the Blue Bulls by four tries to two and dominated for much of the game.
The were quicker, slicker and fitter the visitors from Pretoria.
The first try was scored by fullback Devon Williams. The Pumas won a line-out on the Bulls 10-metre line. An attack was launched and hooker, Marko Janse van Rensburg drew the last defender and gave a perfectly timed pass to Williams.
Chris Smith converted to put the home side seven up.
After dominating the first 20 minutes the Pumas discipline let them down and JT Jackson slotted three out of four penalties to give the Blue Bulls a two-point half-time lead.
The next 23 minutes was the key to victory. The Pumas totally dominated territory and possession and scored three tries. In the 42nd and 48th minutes two penalties were booted over the right touch line, five metres from the Bulls try line. Flanker, Francois Kleinhans scored two tries from the resulting mauls created from the line-out wins.
Chris Smith slotted one conversion and then a penalty for a 22-9 lead.
Centre Alwayno Visagie barged over from an attack started with a tap penalty five metres from the Bulls try line. Smith converted for a 29-9 lead.
With the Blue Bulls battling to get their hands on the ball and into the Pumas’ half, it seemed the Pumas might run away with this one.
The Bulls showed fighting spirit and character by playing much of the rest of the game in the Pumas half.
They were rewarded by two tries from flyhalf Jackson and wing Cornal Hendricks. Jackson converted both.
It was too little too late with the siren sounding 90 seconds after the restart after Hendricks’ try. The game ended with a Pumas’ penalty booted deep into the east grandstand.
Captain Ryan Nell was thrilled with the team’s performance but stated this was only the start of much harder work.
“It was a good start. There is still a lot to work on and we will take this into the new week and work on what needs to be fixed up,” said Nell after the match.
The Pumas kept the Bulls tryless until late in the match and Nell contributed this to the defence drills on the training field which he said started in December last year already. “Out fitness also contributed to the defensive effort,” he said.
It was a hard-fought eight-point win for the ISG Pumas. They claimed the vital bonus point for four tries.
The home team can be proud of their first competitive match of the season. The high road to the final is to win their section. Friday night was a very, very good start to this mission.
