The Blue Bulls’ u.21 team were crowned national champions for the first time in five years after they beat Western Province 33-27 in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

This young Blue Bulls team, coached by the besieged and underrated Nollis Marais, overturned a 17-point deficit in a fine second-half display to clinch the SA Rugby u.21 Championship title.

The victory was the cherry on top for the team from Pretoria following an impressive season in which they suffered only two defeats, allowing them to top the standings. The last time a Blue Bulls team could win this title was in 2014, when Marais was also the coach.

As finals usually progress, this one was initially also tough and the opening exchanges were tightly fought with both teams running hard on attack and backing it up with solid defence. This resulted in both teams kicking penalty goals to get on the scoreboard.

However, the Capetonians’ determined efforts to apply pressure on their Pretoria rivals finally paid off in the 30^th minute as Shaine Orderson (flanker) forced his way over the try line from a pick-and-go after some strong forward play.

They backed this up with their second try four minutes later with Vusile Dlepu picking up the ball from the base of the ruck and showing a dummy pass before weaving his way through the defence to the try line, which handed them an encouraging 20-3 halftime lead.

But from the kick-off in the second half the Blue Bulls fought back with intent. Soon flanker Stephan Smit went over for their first try of the match after forcing his way over the try line in the corner. The successful conversion by Theo Boshoff and a penalty goal shortly thereafter allowed them to reduce their deficit to only seven points.

Western Province received their second yellow card soon after with prop Sazi Sandi who had to leave the field following an infringement at a maul. The opposition took advantage of this with Gershwin Mouton (winger) scoring after receiving a smart pass out wide, and the successful conversion levelled the scores at 20-20.

Marais’s team built on this minutes later with Boshoff kicking his third penalty goal, which pushed the young Blue Bulls ahead on the scoreboard for the first time in the match.

The Pretoria side continued to make their presence felt as Carl Els (replacement forward) touched down after a gathering a sharp pass in space, and Boshoff added a drop goal to his successful conversion to push them 33-20 ahead.

Western Province fought until the last minute with Gift Dlamini (flanker) dashing to the try line after the hooter had sounded, but it was too little too late, as they went down 33-27.

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