Bulls squeak past Lions

Francois Hougaard © Gallo Images

The Blue Bulls overcame a spirited Xerox Lions’ side to triumph 19-13 (half-time 0-13) in a scrappy Absa Currie Cup match at Loftus Versveld in Pretoria on Saturday.

Both teams were guilty of poor goal-kicking while numerous handling errors ruined the match as a spectacle. Between them the two teams contrived to miss nine kicks at goal and commit 29 handling errors.

The Lions’ tight five stood up manfully to their more fancied opponents, especially in the scrums, but in the end the Bulls proved to have too much on attack with inside centre Wynand Olivier at the heart of most of the home-side’s attacking endeavours.

Despite their poor execution the commitment from both teams could not be faulted and, as is usual in matches between the near neighbours, the opening exchanges were ferocious.

The Lions opened the scoring in the second minute when flyhalf Herkie Kruger slotted a penalty from in front of the posts after the Bulls had transgressed at a ruck.

The Lions then embarked on a period of sustained pressure that saw the visitors carry the ball through 14 phases of possession before eighthman Willem Alberts was on hand to take the scoring pass and barge his way over the try-line near the posts.

Kruger duly added the extra two points and the Lions found themselves with a 10-0 lead after 11 minutes.

The Bulls’ cause was not helped by two early penalty misses from flyhalf Burton Francis and the Lions stretched their lead to 13 points when Kruger goaled his second penalty following a high tackle from lock Wilhelm Steenkamp on wing Dusty Noble in the 23rd minute.

Francis’ poor kicking performance saw the unfortunate flyhalf subbed for Francois Brummer as early as the 26th minute but the home-side, as a whole, were guilty of making a number of unforced errors with handling mistakes, miscommunication and injudicious kicking resulting in a plethora of promising attacks breaking down.

The Lions suffered a blow at the start of the second-half when their influential captain, flank Cobus Grobbelaar, limped off the field and, moments later, Noble pulled off a tremendous try-saving tackle when he prevented Bulls’ fullback Zane Kirchner from scoring in the corner.

Despite missing out on the try the Bulls were showing more enterprise than in the first-half and their efforts were rewarded when the impressive replacement fullback Tiger Mangweni found himself on the end of a backline movement to dive over in the right-hand corner after 48 minutes.

Brummer failed to convert but the Bulls had their tails up and, seven minutes later, right wing Gerhard van den Heever was on hand to score a debut Currie Cup try in the right-hand corner. Once again the Bulls failed to convert but, with the score 10-13, the home-side was finally in range of the Lions’ lead.

The Lions were having to defend almost continuously and they repelled wave after wave of Bulls’ attacks before the visitors were caught off side at a ruck which allowed Brummer to draw the scores level in the 62nd minute with the Bulls’ first successful penalty kick of the game.

With 10 minutes remaining in the match the Bulls finally crept into the lead when Lions replacement flank Rob Kruger was yellow-carded for a high tackle on Francois Hougaard. Brummer kicked the resultant penalty to take the Bulls into a 16-13 lead before the flyhalf finally killed the Lions off as he kicked his third penalty in the last minute of the match.

Scores

Blue Bulls – Tries: Tiger Mangweni, Gerhard van den Heever. Penalties: Francois Brummer (3).

Xerox Lions – Try: Willem Alberts. Conversion: Herkie Kruger. Penalties: H. Kruger (2).

Read more on the Currie Cup page.

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