Convincing victory for the Blue Bulls over the Lions at Loftus
The Bulls won their neighbours from across the Jukskei River on Friday at Loftus Versfeld in an important Currie Cup game.
The Blue Bulls are back on track in the Currie Cup competition after they beat the Golden Lions 31-17 on Loftus Versfeld on Friday night in a tough Jukskei river derby.
The game started as a hard and tough arm-wrestling battle. In the first twenty minutes the two teams did not stood back an inch for each other.
The first real action of the game came after 25 minutes when an old sin of the Blue Bulls emerged again. They could not control the kick-off and after the ball was turned over, Andries Coetzee attacked and went halfway through a gap. He off-loaded to Howard Mnisi, who went through to score the try.
It seemed as if this try woke the Blue Bulls up and they started to carry the ball more often. However, a mistake by Mnisi resulted in the first try for the Blue Bulls. He tried a long pass to Coetzee, but the ball was intercepted by Travis Ismaiel. The big winger had too much pace for his opponents and he ran about 70 meters to score the try.
Just before half time the Lions looked very dangerous again. They attacked persistently, but the Blue Bulls passed a big test in character when they kept them away from the try line to lead by 16-10 at half time.
Whatever Nollis Marais said in the dressing room at half time worked very well, because the Blue Bulls changed a few gears when play resumed. Just seven minutes later Marvin Orie drove over to score from a lineout.
After another period of very tough rugby in which no mercy was ask or given, the Lions hit back with a very good try by Kwagga Smith. Boshoff’s conversion brought the point’s difference to only four points and the Blue Bulls were under pressure again.
A penalty by Schoeman brought relief again for the Bulls. Five minutes before the end of the match they followed this up with a very timely try by replacement centre, Josh Stander.
Suddenly it was the Lions that were under pressure and they had to chase the game. But the Bulls’ defence was much better than earlier in the season and they managed to keep their neighbours from scoring more points.
SCORERS:
BLUE BULLS: 31 Tries: Travis Ismaiel, Marvin Orie, Josh Stander. Conversions: Tian Schoeman (2). Penalties: Tian Schoeman (4).
GOLDEN LIONS: 17 Tries: Howard Mnisi, Kwagga Smit. Conversions: Marnitz Boshoff (2), Penalties: Marnitz Boshoff (1)
Blue Bulls: 15 Duncan Matthews, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Dries Swanepoel, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Piet van Zyl, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Arno Botha (captain), 6 Ruan Steenkamp, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Rudolph Snyman, 3 Jacobie Adriaanse, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Martin Dreyer, 18 Nic de Jager, 19 Roelof Smit, 20 Andre Warner, 21 Joshua Stander, 22 Ulrich Beyers.
Golden Lions: 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Courtnall Skosan, 13 Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 12 Howard Mnisi, 11 Anthony Volmink, 10 Marnitz Boshoff, 9 Ross Cronje (captain), 8 Ruan Ackermann, 7 Cyle Brink, 6 Albertus Smith, 5 Lourens Erasmus, 4 Martin Muller, 3 Jacques van Rooyen, 2 Robbie Coetzee, 1 Dylan Smith.
Replacements: 16 Armand van der Merwe, 17 Corné Fourie, 18 Victor Sekekete, 19 Fabian Booysen, 20 Dillon Smit, 21 Jaco van der Walt, 22 Jacques Nel.
Referee: Craig Joubert
Assistant referees: Francois Pretorius, Jaco Pretorius
TMO: Johan Greeff
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