Heartbreak moment for Stormers gives Bulls an escape victory

It was heartbreak for the DHL Stormers as No 8 Juarno Augustus lost the ball going over the line in what would have been the match-winning try against the Vodacom Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

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The moment of drama denied the Cape side what would have been a famous victory, but instead allowed Bulls coach Jake White to breathe a sigh of relief as his side won 34-29 in an entertaining match.

Augustus’s moment, where he lost the ball going over the line, was cruel fate for the Cape side after they had decided to take a late penalty in the last minute to bring them back within scoring range with the hope of getting upfield to take the win.

And in those final helter-skelter moments, it seemed they had done enough to condemn the Bulls to their first home defeat under White on the back of a dominant maul and scrum.

All Augustus needed to do was to plant the ball but as he went over it slipped from his grasp, with the television match official confirming the Stormers’ worst fears.

It brought down the curtain on a night of drama where both sides showed incredible intent and flew into each other to show that while the match may have meant little in terms of competition, it still had passion aplenty.

And while the refereeing was inconsistent at times, and both sides got away with murder on the field when they should have been penalised, it still didn’t distract from an enthralling game of rugby.

Credit should go to both sides for the manner in which the game was approached, although on the face of it the Bulls' second-half surge should have been enough to win the match.

After scoring first, the home side never really saw the ball for most of the rest of the half as they conceded a string of penalties.

At one stage the penalty count in the opening 35 minutes was 8-0 against the Bulls in a period of total dominance for the Stormers.

MOMENT OF THE NIGHT

In that time Damian Willemse weaved his magic in the backline, making both metres and exposing players on defence, and was sure to leave some at Loftus sorry that he never signed on the dotted line to move to the Pretoria team.

The Bulls' opener was a beautiful surge of play, finding the wide ball for fullback Richard Kriel to go over untouched.

But then the Stormers, through their attacking kicks, kept the Bulls pinned back and used their pack to force penalties. Twice Leolin Zas found space on the outside to score, and the Stormers were suddenly 20-7 up and finding life very easy.

The tide started to turn just before the break, when Joe van Zyl scored off a rolling maul that didn’t seem to have much resistance to see his side into the break at 20-14 behind.

The Bulls scored first in the second half, this time Marco Jansen van Vuren scored after some excellent hands by Madosh Tambwe.

Two more penalties to the Stormers kept them ahead, but Ruan Nortje took the ball from Marco van Staden’s surge and drove himself over the line. At 26-24 the game was narrowly poised.

The Bulls seemed to have won the game when the moment of the night – a wonderful break by Cornal Hendricks which included an outside swerve, saw him brought down five metres out.

His pop-pass attempt was slapped down by Ruan Nel, leaving referee AJ Jacobs no option but to award a penalty try and send Nel off to the sin bin.

Another penalty, this time by replacement Morne Steyn, put the Bulls eight points out and it looked done and dusted.

But then the Stormers decided they wanted to play, and threw everything at the Bulls.

And it would have been glory if the ball stayed in Augustus’s hand.

SCORERS

Vodacom Bulls -  tries: Richard Kriel, Joe van Zyl, Marco Jansen van Vuren, Ruan Nortje, Penalty try. Conversions: Chris Smith (2). Penalty: Morne Steyn.

DHL Stormers – tries:  Leolin Zas (2). Conversions: Kade Wolhuter (2). Penalties: Wolhuter (3), Swiel (2).