If anyone doubted the difference a fit and confident Johan Goosen could make to the Vodacom Bulls they should have been at Loftus on Saturday to see last year’s beaten Vodacom United Rugby Championsip finalists run out 45-9 victors over Cardiff.
It was Goosen, who now looks over the inevitable tentative teething period a player goes through when coming back from a serious injury, who brought the best out of his fellow Bok backline duo of Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie in the attacks that enabled the Bulls to overcome spirited initial Cardiff resistance and strike two telling blows in the build-up to halftime.
The Paarl reared pair combined later on to produce the try that completed Moodie’s brace, by which time Goosen had left the field for a well earned rest. But it was Goosen’s deft play that got the show going after a stuttering start.
Indeed, for much of the first half it looked as though Cardiff might be set to make life as difficult for the Bulls as they did for the Cell C Sharks on their way to the 35-0 win that broke the Welsh duck on South African soil since what used to be the PRO14 become the URC. The Bulls were making mistakes and they were struggling to hold onto their possession.
CARDIFF MADE IT HARD INITIALLY
In the first 20 minutes it was Cardiff who dominated the battle for the ball on the ground, and throughout the game the Bulls probably delivered a performance in the loose scrums that was below what coach Jake White would have been hoping for. By the 20 minute mark, the visitors had managed to force five turnovers.
There was a breakdown penalty almost at the start that Cardiff flyhalf Jarrod Evans kicked to put his team into a 3-0 lead. Although Goosen levelled the scores with a penalty, Evans was on target again in the 12th minute to make it 6-3 to the Welsh team.
The Bulls managed to poach a Cardiff lineout ball but it wasn’t all systems go for the hosts, and Cardiff managed to do what they do so well, which was to disrupt the Bulls and spoil their attempts at getting momentum.
But once the Bulls managed to get the ball through the phases without producing one of those errors that had earlier kept them in first gear, they began to look the part. And after one patient and sustained build-up it was Goosen who put fullback Arendse into a gap not far out from the Cardiff line and Arendse in turn found Moodie who went over untouched.
Goosen’s conversion put the Bulls four points ahead, the first time in the game that they had led, bang on the half hour mark. A poor decision from Ruan Vermaak allowed Evans to bring three points back, with the lock bumping Cardiff scrumhalf Lloyd Williams off the ball.
But just over a minute out from halftime it was Goosen who took the ball flat near the Cardiff line and a brilliant backhanded pass sent Arendse in for the try that, with Goosen’s conversion, put some daylight between the teams on the scoreboard, with the Bulls leading 17-9.
The Bulls should never lose when they are ahead at halftime at home, where they have altitude on their side, and sure enough they managed to score four second half tries as the competitiveness of the first half gave way to a more one-sided game.
GOOSEN’S TRY CAPS FINE PERFORMANCE
Goosen himself capped his own excellent performance by weaving his way through the Welsh defenders for a fine individual try dotted down between the uprights shortly after halftime. His conversion made it 24-9, and after that the Bulls weren’t going to be stopped.
It could be argued that they once again produced a bit of an iffish third quarter, with Cardiff pressing for much of that time. But at least the Bulls’ excellent defensive work didn’t allow Cardiff to make any impression on the scoreboard. Instead it was Bulls skipper Ruan Nortje, who on the hour mark, crashed over as the third receiver as the hosts moved the ball across the Cardiff line from a loose scrum.
That was the bonus point try, and the Bulls had little left to prove after that. Yet unlike the Stormers in Gqeberha earlier in the day, they didn’t lose shape and direction once the bonus point was pocketed, and powered on to score three more tries.
MOODIE COMPLETES HIS BRACE
One of those was Moodie’s second, which came off a typical bit of interplay between the two Boks, and ended with Moodie diving on a kick placed behind the Cardiff tryline. No 8 Elrigh Louw was probably the Bulls player who on the day came closest to challenging Moodie for the official man of the match award, with his ball carrying and his defensive work standing out.
It was fitting then that his busy performance was rewarded by the final Bulls try as the Pretoria team ended the game looking far more like a stampeding herd of Bulls than they did in the first parts of the game. Certainly the Bulls appear to have a different dynamic with Goosen, who could also have been man of the match, at flyhalf, and the way he brings out the best in Arendse and Moodie should be regarded as a loud warning to their future opponents.
Scores
Vodacom Bulls 45 - Tries: Canan Moodie 2, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Johan Goosen, Ruan Nortje and Elrigh Louw; Conversions: Johan Goosen 4 and Chris Smith 2; Penalty: Johan Goosen. Cardiff 9 - Penalties: Jarrod Evans 3.