Super Steyn breaks Province hearts

Morne Steyn © Gallo Images

So many of the Vodacom Blue Bulls players have shown their champion qualities recently that it is hard to pinpoint exactly which other moment in the past few seasons was most reminiscent of their 21-19 Absa Currie Cup semifinal win over Vodacom Western Province at Newlands.

Blow-by-blow scoring

Certainly the Morne Steyn penalty kick that downed a spirited and unexpectedly strong challenge from Luke Watson’s WP with three minutes to had shades of the epoch-making that clinched the Springboks their series against the British and Irish Lions in Pretoria earlier this season.

Back in June he had to kick that penalty from inside his own half, but it was in the rarified atmosphere of the Highveld, where the ball travels further than it does at the coast. At Loftus the kick was also almost from the middle of the field, and he had the knowledge that if he missed his team would still have another crack at winning the series the following week.

At Newlands it was all or nothing. The kick was taken from just 42 metres out from the tryline, but it was at an angle, so stretching the required distance to more than that, and you had to be at the game to know just how difficult the wind was that he had to contend with.

Even the most ardent WP fan should be prepared to acknowledge Steyn’s skill and his unflappability under pressure, and the man who conceded the penalty with a reckless tackle, reserve winger Sireli Naqelevuki, can ease his own pain with the knowledge that bagging the three points still required a stupendous effort.

With the Bulls having struggled to get their hands on the ball for much of the second half, Steyn must have realised that a miss would probably have secured WP’s advance to a home final and sealed their own exit from the competition.

But then there were also other moments from relatively recent Bulls history that the victory reminded us of, not least being the victory from jaws of defeat that won them their first ever Super 14 title in Durban in 2007. Like then, the home team probably deserved victory, and could justifiably feel they were burgled.

Yet it is the ability to come up trumps when the odds are stacked against you and the pressure is really on that defines champion teams. And the Bulls win would not have happened had it not been for the Victor Matfield poached lineout ball which enabled his team to relieve pressure and get out of their half with five minutes left on the clock.

Up to that point it looked to be just a case of WP winding down the clock to clinch the win such was their control of possession. Just as the Bulls held their nerve, so WP bottled it by adding a skew lineout throw to the poach. It was then that the Bulls wriggled out of the stranglehold and put themselves in position to strike for the victory.

WP can console themselves with the knowledge that they are the coming team, not the champion team, and the short-fall in experience goes a long way to explaining why the Bulls prevailed and they fell short.

Certainly there was plenty even in this most heartbreaking of defeats for the long-suffering WP fans to be encouraged by, and it is a long time since we have seen a Province pack look so assured against a full-strength Bulls unit.

Watson’s men played their hearts out, almost every plan of theirs worked beyond the first 20 minutes, and apart from scoring the only try of the match, they also scored 19 points to just nine from their highly rated opponents in the last hour of the game.

For the first quarter it did look as if the pre-match predictions of a big Bulls win might be vindicated. The Bulls started like the Boks did so often this season by getting into the WP faces, by bringing a testosterone driven bustle to their game that had the hosts reeling.

The Bulls always looked the less likely of the two teams to score a try, but by playing WP into their half they applied the pressure that forced the penalties. This was in spite of the absence of big Bulls enforcer Bakkies Botha in the first 11 minutes after Mark Lawrence carded him for using his elbow in cleaning out a ruck.

It was the Bulls who predictably brought the early physicality, but the pressure paid off through WP mistakes. Steyn kicked four penalties by the 20th minute for his team to lead 12-0.

But once they got over their stage-fright and started to find composure, WP were more than just in the game -- there were stages they were dominating it against their highly rated opponents, with the marker being laid down in the long period just before half-time where the WP defence withstood everything thrown at them before breaking out to net the penalty that closed the gap to 12-6 at half-time.

For the most part WP competed well in the lineouts, and the scrum, although giving away three penalties, more than held its own. But it was at the breakdown that WP were so outstanding, repeatedly affecting turn-overs at crucial stages.

Frikkie Welsh more than justified the decision to play him out of position on the left wing, a perfect left footed grubber being chased down by Gio Aplon for the only try of the match. The conversion made it 16-15 with 22 minutes to go, WP going into the lead for the first time, and for a long time their fans were allowed to dream the impossible dream.

WP enjoyed the momentum going into the last quarter, with Welsh, Schalk Burger and Wicus Blaauw taking it in turns to put in some stupendous tackles that prevented the Bulls from getting their required momentum.

Scorers:
Vodacom Western Province - Try: Gio Aplon. Conversion: Joe Pietersen. Penalties: Pietersen (4).
Vodacom Blue Bulls - Penalties: Morne Steyn (7)

Read more on the Currie Cup page.

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