The DHL Stormers made it back-to-back wins in the north/south rivalry for this Vodacom United Rugby Championship season by thwarting a late Bulls fightback and prevailing 19-17 in a tense and tight derby at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town on Saturday.
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As anticipated, it was a game played in front of a large crowd, fitting for the billing of the most important derby since the arrival of Covid.
And the mostly Stormers supporting faithful in the crowd would have been satisfied with a result that gives their team’s hopes of Champions Cup qualification a significant boost.
But as an advertisement for what entertainment could be put on for the returning spectators, this was well short of what should have been desired, with the game being stop-start throughout and both teams appearing to revert to the derby mentality of the first comeback period from the Covid lockdown in late 2020 and early 2021.
Remember the 2020 Currie Cup final? That’s what we are talking about, it wasn't completely dissimilar.
REFEREE CALL WILL BE TALKING POINT
Given that lack of adventure, and it was almost as if both teams were overawed by the occasion and the hyped-up build-up, it was probably necessary that the game had a bit of controversy and drama to be a talking point afterwards.
The Stormers looked like they were going to win with something to spare when Damian Willemse slotted a drop-goal with nine minutes to go to put his team nine points ahead.
But an excellent Kurt-Lee Arendse take of a box kick from Stormers replacement scrumhalf Paul de Wet set up a thrilling Bulls counter-attack that eventually saw Ruan Nortje go over in the left corner.
Hacjivah Dayimani, one of the stars for the Stormers on the afternoon, put in a despairing tackle attempt near the corner flag that was high - he really had no choice - and for the next nearly five minutes while the referee and the TMO were conferring, the people in the more than 20 000 crowd would have assumed the debate was about whether it was a try or penalty try.
In the end Dayimani did get a yellow card and the Bulls were awarded a penalty, but the referee had to disallow the try due to a foot going into touch before the high tackle incident happened.
The Stormers might also claim there should have been a penalty at the point where that Bulls attack started, as it did appear the Bulls might have been guilty of blocking Stormers players trying to get to Arendse when he fielded the ball.
Had the penalty been awarded there and Libbok kicked it, there wouldn't have been a talking point afterwards.
Anyway, from the ensuing lineout set up by the Bulls' penalty, the Bulls scored through Elrigh Louw and the try was converted by replacement flyhalf Morne Steyn.
That made it a two-point game and you would have anticipated that with five minutes left on the clock, the Bulls would do everything to hold onto the ball.
Instead, they persisted with the box kicks and calling for marks, which only slowed down the game when they should have been trying to use up every available second.
BULLS A BIT ONE-DIMENSIONAL ON ATTACK
When they did finally decide to hold onto the ball off the last move of the game, they were pinned in their own 22 - after a mark - and the Stormers defence was equal to their one-dimensional challenge.
In the end the hosts forced a penalty near the right-hand corner inside the Bulls 22 and the match was done.
The Bulls were dangerous from broken play and that was how they scored their excellent try to wing Canan Moodie when scrumhalf Zak Burger broke through after fielding a box kick and the Bulls always had an advantage in numbers after that.
The score, converted by flyhalf Chris Smith from the touchline, drew the score level at 10-all after 52 minutes.
The Stormers had taken their halftime lead on the stroke of the break with a thrilling counter-attack from their own line.
One second it looked like the Stormers might concede the first try of the match off the last move of the half, but thanks to the work on the ground on his own line of their ace fetcher Deon Fourie, and then a run from Fourie down the right flank followed by a break and score from the electric running and stepping of flanker Dayimani, the next second it was the Stormers who scored on the other side of the field.
Well maybe it’s not quite accurate to say the next second, for it did take a good and patient build-up from the Stormers.
That try was the saving grace of a first half that for long periods just appeared to be meandering.
It was almost as if the two teams were paying too much respect to each other, like two highly rated teams at the top of the league might do when they face each other and are too scared to be their usual adventurous selves.
The Bulls got the first points on the board after the Stormers were penalised at a breakdown under their posts through Chris Smith after 14 minutes, and the Stormers responded with a long-range penalty from the rapidly maturing Manie Libbok 11 minutes later.
The Stormers made a mess of their lineouts in the first half, conceding at least three against the throw, but at the same time the Stormers were good at pressurising the Bulls at the lineouts.
For much of the game you’d say it was a stalemate in just about all aspects of the game, but the Stormers were good at the breakdowns and ultimately that probably was what won them the game.
The win leaves the Stormers undefeated in URC derby matches this year, with their only blemish against a fellow South African team being their loss to the Emirates Lions here at the DHL Stadium in early December.
Since then they've beaten the Bulls twice, the Lions away and the Sharks at home in addition to drawing with the Sharks in Durban.
SCORES
DHL Stormers 19 - Try: Hacjivah Dayimani; Conversion: Manie Libbok; Penalties: Manie Libbok 2; Drop-goal: Damian Willemse.
Vodacom Bulls 17 - Tries: Canan Moodie and Elrigh Louw; Conversions: Chris Smith and Morne Steyn; Penatly: Morne Steyn.