Pretoria – The great rugby depression that was beginning to sink into Pretoria was lifted after a spirited performance by the Bulls as they edged out a resilient and stubborn Sharks outfit 43-35 at Loftus Versfeld last night.
The win not only lifted the veil of doom and gloom that had set in over the Bulls after their two home defeats to the Stormers and Hurricanes, but it was the first time this season that the home side played with the potential that is within their star-studded squad.
What would have made the victory even sweeter for the Bulls was that they managed to burgle it from the jaws of defeat, gained a bonus point for the four tries they scored and also denied the Sharks a bonus point.
While much rugby was played in the 80 minutes, the real drama of this epic derby unfolded in the last eight minutes, when the Sharks took control of the scoreboard for the first time in the match through a Patrick Lambie penalty.
From then on it looked certain that the Sharks were well on their way to victory, as the Bulls players’ heads began to hang and Loftus was plunged into silence.
Dominant
There were enough signs that the depression that had slowly set in over the past two weeks would continue and with the Sharks looking dominant, especially with ball in hand, the return to winning ways for the Durban side was imminent.
However, the Sharks’ over-zealous play – especially against the Bulls’ rolling maul – was their undoing as they conceded a penalty with five minutes of play left for replacement Bulls flyhalf Tian Schoeman to calmly convert and give the hosts a slender one point lead.
With the game finely balanced and both teams’ belief suddenly sky high, it was the Sharks who threw caution to the wind in a last-gasp effort from deep within their half.
As had been the case throughout the game, the Bulls rush defence applied one more ounce of pressure on the Sharks attack and Lambie spilt.
It was for the ever aware Victor Matfield to gather and offload to a charging Jan Serfontein, who crashed over the line for the Bulls’ fourth try of the match and sealed a win that would have certainly relieved a lot of the pressure the Bulls have had to endure in recent times.
While there is still a long way to go in the competition, the Bulls will mark this as one of their finest moments in a campaign that is still in its infancy.
Even though there were only three scrums in the entire game, the Bulls will be pleased not to have conceded a penalty or have lost the armwrestle.
The line-outs were a lottery as the young Pieter-Steph du Toit didn’t stand back in the face of the much experienced Matfield staring him down.
In the end the old master Matfield prevailed in the set piece, but Du Toit was menacing in general play and his presence in the Sharks pack will be critical in them gaining ascendancy against future opposition.
But what really made a difference for the Bulls was how they bossed the breakdown, firstly by not committing too many men into it; secondly by the timing showed by the likes of Lappies Labuschagne, Deon Stegmann and, surprisingly, Pierre Spies at stealing possession and the ability to counter ruck as a unit.
Then there was the Herculean effort from the Bulls little man Rudy Paige at scrum-half who set up two of the Bulls four tries with his timely short passing game.
Paige was a breath of fresh air to the hosts as his ability to quickly discharge of the ball from the forwards to the backs also gave the Bulls’ backs time and space on the ball.
There would have been a lot of contention in how television match official Johan Greef judged two sets of play, and they could have been the tipping points in the game.
First, in awarding the Bulls’ first try, which had looked like an obvious forward pass from full-back Jesse Kriel to try-scorer Francois Hougaard, and then in denying the Sharks what looked like a legitimate try by saying the ball had been knocked on in the air by wing Odwa Ndungane. The Sharks, though, persisted and fought valiantly throughout and would have felt aggrieved in the way their efforts were not rewarded on the scoreboard – and with that bonus point that slipped from their hands at the death.
“I think it was an intense pressure cooker, as it always is at Loftus against a very desperate Bulls team, which played well,” said Sharks director of rugby Gary Gold afterwards.
“On the one hand I think both teams made errors, and you are going to in that situation. I think the comeback and character shown by the guys and the opportunities that we created and executed; we were very unlucky not to have won that game,” he added.
Results
Bulls (23) 43
Sharks (16) 35
Scorers:
Bulls: Tries: Francois Hougaard, Deon Stegmann, Pierre Spies, Jan Serfontein. Conversions: Handre Pollard (3), Tian Schoeman. Penalties: Handre Pollard (4) Schoeman
Sharks: Tries: Ryan Kankowski, Cobus Reinach. Conversion: Patrick Lambie (2). Penalties: Patrick Lambie (7).