The talking point after this game should be how the Vodacom Bulls allowed it to be so close when they dominated the scrums like they did but ultimately they had a missed conversion to thank for them edging out the DHL Stormers 33-32 at a packed DHL Stadium on Saturday.
With a minute and a half left on the clock the Stormers looked like they had snatched what would have been an important Vodacom United Rugby Championship win when flanker BJ Dixon powered himself over the line to cut a six point deficit to just one. Stormers coach John Dobson had just replaced his more reliable place-kicker Jurie Matthee but the try was scored just a few metres to the right of the posts.
This SA North v South derby hits different 💪🔥 @Vodacom #URC | #STOvBUL pic.twitter.com/jUkbJp6p2L
— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) February 8, 2025
Surely Clayton Blommetjies, who’d just come onto the field, couldn’t miss from there? But he did and the Bulls escaped with a win that was lucky if you look at that let off from Blommetjies but was probably deserved on the balance of play and given the way the Bulls bossed the scrums and also the lineouts in the first hour of a pulsating game.
The Stormers will look back on several missed opportunities, and some lax defence that contributed to the tries that the Bulls scored in the first two minutes of the game and then in the first two minutes of the second half. There was also a penalty kicked on the stroke of halftime by David Kriel that was effectively the result of yet another lost Stormers lineout, something that is starting to become a bit of a malaise for the Stormers.
The Cape side were up 17-15 having just scored their second try after recovering from a 15-7 deficit when the lineout was poached by the Bulls and then from the ensuing field position they were presented with the three pointer that enabled them to go into the break 18-17 up.
A thriller right to the very end 🍿
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) February 8, 2025
The Vodacom Bulls hold on to win in Cape Town 👏👏#VURC pic.twitter.com/uV8q7n4R2x
In a game of such fine margins that was one of several critical moments in the game when you look back on it, although the Joseph Dweba knock-on from the kick-off to the second half that set up the scrum from which the Bulls attacked with lethal effect for Harold Vorster to score under the posts was even more critical.
GAME OF FLUCTUATIONS
Suddenly in the space of a few minutes spread either side of halftime the Stormers had gone from a two point lead back to an eight point deficit. That was the sort of game it was, with the Stormers always appearing to be the team chasing the game, and the Bulls always poised to put them away. Without quite doing so.
Had it not been for the quite bizarre way the game swung this way and that, with a later Bulls try coming as a result of an intercept by none other than reserve hooker Akker van der Merwe, who was finally caught just metres from the line but was able to get the ball away, everyone would be talking about Wilco Louw.
The celebration matches the finish 😏🔥
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) February 8, 2025
This one is going down to the wire at the DHL Stadium 🏉👇
📺 Stream #VURC on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/hKzs4vEcq3
The product of Ceres fruit farming country was the star of the show when Stormers coach John Dobson coached Western Province to a Currie Cup final win over the Sharks in Durban in 2017 but this time the boot was on the other foot as the tighthead was the anvil around which the Bulls dominated the Stormers scrum like they haven’t been for many a year.
The Bulls certainly had enough momentum in the first half to end the game as a contest by the halfway point, but the Stormers, egged on by a crowd of nearly 50 000, were never going to go away. They managed to keep coming back into touch in the game, and then for much of the second half they were the dominant team but mistakes cost them, like three missed kicks by Matthee and the intercept that led to the fourth Bulls try at a stage when they were under huge pressure.
BULLS GOT OFF TO ROUSING START
It was the Stormers under pressure in the early parts of the game, and it was the Bulls who did exactly what they said they were intending to do by silencing the Stormers by starting like a house on fire.
The North-South Derby is tight at the DHL Stadium 🚨🏉
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) February 8, 2025
📺 Stream #VURC on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/JdLRhQuUOA
Cameron Hanekom broke through from his own 22 from the kick-off and that set in motion a sustained attack that eventually sent Sergeal Petersen into space down the left touchline before the ball was transferred inside and big Cobus Wiese, another former Stormers player, powered over for the try.
David Kriel, taking on the unaccustomed role of primary goalkicker, missed the conversion, and to be fair the Bulls also missed a few important kicks for posts in the game. It wasn’t just the Stormers. Jurie Matthee was on the mark with his conversion though when, after the Stormers had settled courtesy of an intercept and breakaway by Wandisile Simelane and then they won a penalty that set up the attacking lineout, none other than tighthead prop Frans Malherbe barrelled over for his team’s first try.
Matthee’s conversion made it 7-5 after 10 minutes, and it was a lead that lasted exactly nine minutes as the Stormers made a hash of defending the left wide channel, as they had in the first try, and it ended with Jan-Hendrik Wessels crossing for the try.
This time Kriel did convert to make it 12-7 and then he added a penalty to stretch the lead to eight. That was after 29 minutes but it was a quick tit for tat from the Stormers, as Matthee then kicked a penalty to take the deficit back to five points with nine minutes to go to halftime.
Five minutes later from another attacking lineout, the Stormers rumbled up a few times and then benefitted from a penalty advantage and a quick tap before skipper Salmaan Moerat went over for his team’s second try.
STORMERS CAPITALISED ON YELLOW CARD
The Stormers fought back from the early second half Bulls try after Gerhard Steenekamp was yellow carded and the Bulls were down to 14 men, with first Evan Roos and then Warrick Gelant crossing to ensure that the Stormers were at least assured of a try scoring bonus point. It also propelled them into a 27-25 lead after 58 minutes, but then came a Kriel penalty that put the Bulls back in front by a solitary point.
And sure enough it became eight again when Van der Merwe got his intercept and ran more than half the length of the field for Ruan Vermaak to dot down near the posts. Then came the thrilling finale, with the Stormers throwing everything into it and getting it right when it came to scoring the try they needed. Unfortunately for them they couldn’t kick the conversion. It was that close.
Scores
Vodacom Bulls 33 - Tries: Cobus Wiese, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Harold Vorster and Ruan Vermaak; Conversions: David Kriel 2; Penalties: David Kriel 3. DHL Stormers 32 - Tries: Frans Malherbe, Salmaan Moerat, Evan Roos, Warrick Gelant and BJ Dixon; Conversions: Jurie Matthee 2; Penalty: Jurie Matthee.