Champions go top with clinical win over WP

The Vodacom Bulls triumphed 45-34 in an 11-try thriller against DHL Western Province at Loftus on Wednesday night to go to the top of the Carling Currie Cup log with five league matches to play.

The Bulls' win enabled them to pass the Toyota Cheetahs, who are still unbeaten and have been the leaders of the log for most of the way.

However the important caveat is that the Cheetahs had a bye on Wednesday night so they have a game in hand in a competition that is turning into a two-horse race.

The Vodacom Bulls were at their attacking best, running in six tries in their 45-34 win over DHL Western Province in the #CarlingCurrieCup. pic.twitter.com/ZMEbtbR9au

— SuperSport ?? (@SuperSportTV) April 6, 2022

WP were much improved on both their first round game against the Bulls in Cape Town as well as their most recent defeat to the Airlink Pumas in Cape Town.

They were never in front and on several occasions it looked like the Bulls might draw away but the Cape team hung in the fight and kept coming back with a try every time they fell behind.

What cost the visitors though was their discipline, with a slew of penalties given away in both halves. They were also forced to play 30 minutes with 14 men as three players - centre Cornel Smith, reserve looseforward Jarrod Taylor and skipper Nama Xaba - were yellow carded.

You can’t beat a team like the Bulls when you have that many players carded, particularly not at Loftus and particularly not when the Bulls were as efficient and clinical as they were for most of the way in this game.

It also should be pointed out that the penalties Province gave away and the yellow cards were mostly the result of intense pressure from the Bulls.

The Bulls will feel unhappy that they gave away penalties themselves that allowed WP into the game at times, and their defensive work was a bit patchy when Province ran at them, particularly late in the game.

The WP defence was good in the early stages of the game, when the Bulls piled on the pressure.

WP BLIGHTED BY ERRORS

Bismarck du Plessis was over the line in the fifth minute and at that point the Province players had hardly got their hands on the ball.

Du Plessis’s try was disallowed because he was in an offside position when he picked the ball up, and it might have felt like a win for WP that after kicking all their early penalties to touch, the Bulls eventually opted to go for posts in the 10th minute.

The lead was cancelled out 10 minutes later as WP managed to wriggle their way into the Bulls’ half for the first time thanks to a string of penalties, two of them at scrums, and scored through hooker JJ Kotze from what was their first entry into the opposition 22 in the match.

WP though were blighted by other errors apart from their indiscipline, and one of them was their play at the restarts. They knocked on at the kick-off to the game and made a mistake again at the restart after Kotze’s try, with the Bulls capitalising through a drive over try to prop Robbie Hunt in the 22nd minute to retake the lead.

WP’s error ridden night may have been summed up by the bizarre sequence of events that led ultimately to the Bulls’ second try.

It started with wing Angelo Davids, who had an excellent night on attack, not letting the ball roll into touch in goal when it looked likely to do so.

It was followed by Davids’s rather curious decision to then pass the ball behind the tryline to Tristan Leyds, who had his kick charged down.

The Bulls' attack off the resultant five-metre scrum led to the first WP yellow card, to Smit, and from the next scrum man of the match Keagan Johannes, the Bulls scrumhalf, was over to score. Suddenly the Bulls had a 12 point lead.

As it turned out, they managed the period when Smit was off quite well, and they scored 10 points in the space of just two minutes, the last two minutes of the half, through a try to Marcel Theunissen and then a penalty to Tim Swiel to trail just 17-15 at the break.

They would have been happy with that given the pressure that had been applied and their error rate.

BONUS-POINT TRY

However, the Bulls were not going to let up on the pressure they were applying, and the visitors conceded another sequence of penalties and continued with their error-rate.

The Bulls by contrast were clinical at that point of the game and some good short passing saw wing David Kriel go over in the corner. WP struck back with a good try to Smit, but then fullback James Verity-Am set up another try for Kriel after the overlap had been created and the difference was restored to nine points.

That was also the Bulls’ bonus point try. Unfortunately for WP, it was for an incident in the build-up to the try that Taylor was yellow carded and from the penalty awarded at the restart, Morne Steyn set up another Bulls attacking lineout.

Full marks to WP for not throwing in the towel even when they were down in numbers and it was clear they were going to lose, and the tries scored by Tristan Leyds and Angelo Davids in the last quarter were both quite spectacular.

But the Bulls were always ahead and were always going to win, with WP having to be content with their four try bonus point.

Scores

Vodacom Bulls 45- Tries:Robbie Hunt, Keagen Johannes, David Kriel 2, Lizo Gqoboko and Joe van Zyl; Conversions:Morne Steyn 6; Penalty:Morne Steyn.

DHL Western Province 34 - Tries:JJ Kotze, Marcel Theunissen, Cornel Smit, Tristan Leyds and Angelo Davids; Conversions:Tim Swiel 2 and Kade Wolhuter; Penalty:Tim Swiel.