Bulls leave Stormers behind
The Bulls pulled away from the Stormers in the second half to record a 28-12 victory at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
The home side scored 16 unanswered points after half-time to move up to eighth place on the standings and leave the Stormers back at the bottom of the table.
This was a lively and entertaining match. The liveliness did not always end in points but it certainly made for entertainment. And the way the Stormers started it seemed that they would simply run rings around the Bulls and win by a great score.
That lasted for 20 minutes and the match lasted for 80. As the 80 went on, the Stormers gradually vanished, subsiding out of contention as they sought to keep the Bulls at bay. But those 20 minutes were golden.
First they won a turnover off Jan Serfontein about eight metres inside the Stormers 22. And then the passing started. Damien De Allende to Ruan Botha who was brought to ground. De Allende played scrumhalf and gave to Kurt Coleman. Coleman passed to Schalk Burger who shaped to play inside and then passed behind the backs of Serfontein and Akona Ndungane to get the ball to Cheslin Kolbe just in from touch.
Kolbe sped downfield and gave a bouncing pass to Juan de Jongh who raced ahead did some clever footwork that left Grant Hattingh sprawled on the ground. On the centre went till challenged. He then gave a perfect pass inside to Coleman who had an easy passage to score under the posts. He converted and the Stormers led 7-0 after 12 minutes. It was a try of rare delight.
The Bulls kicked off and the Stormers' ran again. All 15 of them joined in with zest.
Their second try also came from a turnover, off Jacques du Plessis this time, well inside the Stormers' half. Skarra Ntubeni won the ball and ran downfield. He gave to Nizaam Carr on his left and the numbers then went 1, 3, 4, 10, 12, 14, 15, and to De Jongh who beat JJ Engelbrecht with clever footwork and then forced his way ahead of Jürgen Visser and Serfontein to slam the ball down over the line. 12-0 after 19 minutes.
Then the Bulls with strength and cunning put the squeeze on the Stormers and advanced their case in increments of three, helped by a penalty count of five to one in the first half. Patric Cilliers was penalised at a tackle and Handré Pollard goaled. On advantage Pollard dropped a goal. Then he kicked a penalty from the half-way line and then a third when Duane Vermeulen was penalised. That made the half-time score 12-all
Two minutes into the second half Coleman kicked a high kick onto Bjorn Basson, the best catcher of a high kick in South Africa. Basson caught it, De Jongh was penalised and Pollard gave his side a 15-12 lead. Ruan Botha was penalised at a tackle. 18-12 after 53 minutes.
The Bulls went right and Francois Hougaard kicked a long grubber ahead. Coleman and others came scurrying across but Coleman's effort to interfere with the Bulls' progress was feeble and Ndungane toed the ball into the Stormers in-goal where he scored. 25-19 with 15 minutes to play.
The only other score in the match was a penalty goal from the half-way by Jacques-Louis Potgieter with 10 minutes to play.
The Stormers had one little spark of life when De Allende tried to ground the ball in the left corner but Visser's tackle dislodged the ball. The Bulls last snort was when they went to Basson on the shirt side and he swept inside Deon Fourie and raced downfield.
Man of the Match: Jürgen Visser was excellent and kicked long. Jan Serfontein was better and had a great moment with a grubber infield but is still not the playmaker he was at school. Paul Willemse was powerful and effective and the halfbacks were outstanding – Handré Pollard and our Man of the Match Francois Hougaard – a scrumhalf as he always was, lively, skilful, efficient and sympathetic of service.
The scorers:
For the Bulls:
Try: Ndungane
Con: Pollard
Pens: Pollard 5, Potgieter
DG: Pollard
For the Stormers:
Tries: Coleman, De Jongh
Con: Coleman
Teams:
Bulls: 15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Grant Hattingh, 7 Jacques du Plessis, 6 Jono Ross, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Paul Willemse, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Dean Greyling.
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Werner Kruger, 18 Morné Mellett, 19 Jacques Engelbrecht, 20 Wimpie van der Walt, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 23 William Small-Smith.
Stormers: 15 Jaco Taute, 14 Damian de Allende, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Peter Grant, 11 Cheslin Kolbe, 10 Kurt Coleman, 9 Nic Groom, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Schalk Burger (captain), 6 Nizaam Carr, 5 Ruan Botha, 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 Pat Cilliers, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Brok Harris.
Replacements: 16 Stephan Coetzee, 17 Alistair Vermaak, 18 Martin Dreyer, 19 Siya Kolisi, 20 Deon Fourie, 21 Dylon Frylinck, 22 Michael van der Spuy, 23 Devon Williams.
Referee: Craig Joubert
Assistant referees: Lourens van der Merwe, Jaco van Heerden
TMO: Johan Greeff
