Cape Town - A full 80-minute performance is what the Western Province coaches wanted from their team. And an 80-minute performance, full of fight and flair, is what they received against a Blue Bulls side filled with United Rugby Championship players on Saturday in Cape Town.
Four tries secured a bonus point 31-7 Currie Cup win for the young Province side over their more experienced counterparts, as they completed a second consecutive victory over a Springbok-laden Bulls in the competition.
The win was built on a solid defence as the Bulls had absolutely no answer and creativity in the backline to circumvent the excellent rush defence and double hits of the home side.
The young WP pack, with Stormers flanker Willie Engelbrecht at the forefront, battered the Bulls' pack of forward and backs alike.
There will be some sore bodies in the Pretoria side's camp with URC stars like flanker Marco van Staden, centre Cornal Hendricks and fullback Kurt-Lee Arendse copped some heavy hits from Engelbrecht, eighth man Keke Morabe, locks Connor Evans and Dylan de Leeuw and centre Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
De Leeuw and Morabe had brilliant games and are Province players for the future. One guy who had one of his best performances in a WP jersey is scrumhalf Godlen Masimla.
Masimla kept his team on the front foot with quick service, he was a pest when the Bulls tried to clear the ball from the ruck and scrum, he put his opposite numbers under heavy pressure. And for a scrummy, he tackled like a man possessed.
He will remember this North-South derby for a long time.
But in the end, it was a complete team domination of the star-studded Blue Bulls which will surely help the home side secure their place among the top teams in the domestic competition.
It was a typical North-South derby with massive hits coupled with oohs and ahhs from a very vocal crowd even if only a handful of supporters packed into the DHL Stadium.
The visitors dominated the open exchanges but that massive defensive effort by the home side kept them at bay.
The Bulls had the upper hand with their rolling mauls and it's surprising why they did not make more use of this weapon when they were in the driving seat.
But after WP weathered the initial storm(er) of a Bulls start, they slowly gained the ascendency with their massive defence.
Centre Feinberg-Mngomezulu scored the first try when Masimla and Engelbrecht put massive pressure on Bulls scrumhalf Keagan Johannes at a scrum five metres from his try line. Johannes fumbled the ball, Engelbrecht picked it up and offloaded to Feinberg-Mngomezulu to score.
It was a brilliant pressure try, but not the best one of the evening.
That belonged to De Leeuw who went over after another mistake from the Bulls close to their try line.
De Leeuw put Jan-Hendrik Wessels, hooker of the Bulls, on his backside before beautifully stepping Goosen off his left foot to score a try that not many a lock would've dotted down.
The two other tries were scored by youngsters, wingers Damian Markus and Luke Burger, who both intercepted the ball to race away as the Bulls went looking for tries and flung the ball around.
The win propels WP into fourth on the Currie Cup log with the Bulls finding themselves almost at the foot of the table in seventh place.
Points scorers:
Western Province 31 (14) - Tries: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Dylan de Leeuw, Damian Markus, Luke Burger. Conversions: Feinberg-Mngomezulu (4). Penalty: Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
Blue Bulls 7 (0) - Try: Harold Vorster. Conversion: Chris Smith.
@Leighton_K
IOL Sport