Ken Borland

The Leinster trophy-drought continued in the most tightly-contested, gripping United Rugby Championship semi-finals at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday as the Bulls pipped them 25-20, a fairly freakish 67^th-minute try snatching the spoils.

Leinster went toe-to-toe with the powerful Bulls at their home fortress and were level at 20-20 after 64 minutes. In a match in which the stakes often felt as high as in a Test match, there was plenty of kicking and aerial battles as both teams prioritised territory.

And it was from an up-and-under that the outcome was decided. Bulls flyhalf Johan Goosen launched the ball high towards the touchline with Ciaran Frawley seemingly safely underneath it. But Bulls winger Sergeal Petersen, a much shorter man, got up in the air to challenge and somehow sneaked a hand through on to the ball, tapping it out of the defender’s grasp and then regathering a split-second later, before an extravagant swallow-dive took him over the tryline.

The once-so-dominant Dubliners have now gone three seasons without winning either the URC or in Europe. The shortcomings on Saturday evening were in no way down to a lack of effort.

While the taut contest may not have been the greatest advert for exciting attacking rugby, the action was spellbinding and the quality unmistakeable.

The first quarter was scoreless as the Bulls dominated territory but Leinster threatened with their counter-thrusts. The home side thought they had opened the scoring in the 19^th minute but the try was put on ice due to flank Marco van Staden bringing flyhalf Ross Byrne to ground off the ball.

It began a five-minute period in which the Bulls were prone to err in their basics, as Goosen had a drop-out charged down by Garry Ringrose, who returned to action with a tremendous steely performance in midfield. From the scrum, Petersen was yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on as Leinster worked the blindside, and the Bulls were then caught short again on that side in defence as wing James Lowe went over for the opening try.

The Bulls’ replied with their own try just six minutes later, however, with there off-the-ball work this time being superb as Goosen sprinted on to a pass from scrumhalf Embrose Papier in the shadow of the poles to knife through a Leinster defence which up till then had been stopping everything.

The scrum was perhaps the one area where Leinster were consistently shaded, and Goosen was able to kick a 41^st-minute penalty from that set-piece to give the Bulls a 10-7 halftime lead.

It meant a crowd of more than 31 000 were in jovial mood on a mild winter’s evening and their happiness only increased in the second minute of the second half as the Bulls scored a lovely try to stretch their lead to 17-7. A blindside move saw centre Harold Vorster in space down the touchline, his deft kick ahead then bounced perfectly for Petersen to gather and score.

The impressive flank Caelan Doris thundered over the tryline though in the 51^st minute, escorted by the muscle of Tadhg Furlong and Joe McCarthy.

Byrne levelled the scores with a 59^th-minute penalty, slick work from Lowe having forced an offsides, but Goosen put the Bulls back in front three minutes later with another penalty.

An attempted jackal by Akker van der Merwe went wrong and cost the home side the lead as Byrne again slotted the penalty to make it 20-20.

But then it all went south for Leinster as the Bulls’ pressure-kicking game paid off and handed them a place in the United Rugby Championship final.

Scorers

Bulls – Tries: Johan Goosen, Sergeal Petersen (2). Conversions: Goosen (2). Penalty: Goosen (2).

Leinster – Tries: James Lowe, Caelan Doris. Conversions: Ross Byrne (2). Penalties: Byrne (2)

Teams

Bulls – Le Roux (Smit 56^th), Petersen, Kriel, Vorster, Williams, Goosen, Papier, Steenekamp (Matanzima 60^th), Grobbelaar (Van der Merwe 41^st), W. Louw (Klopper 60^th), Vermaak (Ludwig 65^th), Nortje, Van Staden (Carr 60^th), E. Louw, Hanekom.

Munster – O’Brien (Osborne 65^th), Lamour, Ringrose (Frawley 64^th), Henshaw, Lowe, Byrne, Gibson-Park (McGrath 62^nd), Porter (Healy 67th), Sheehan (Kelleher 67^th), Furlong (Alaalatoa 68^th), McCarthy, Ryan (Molony 66^th), Baird, Van der Flier (Conan 67^th), Doris.

KITWE (Zambia) – MJ Viljoen may have wondered why his fortunes turned sour on the back nine, but the 29-year-old held his round together to take a one-stroke lead after the third and penultimate round of the Mopani Zambia Open at Nkana Golf Club on Saturday.

Viljoen was three-under-par for his round through eight holes on Saturday, but suffered four bogeys coming home. But he showed his mettle by birdieing the 16^th and 17^th holes to finish with a one-under-par 71 for nine-under-par overall.

Jacques P. de Villiers shot an excellent 68 on Saturday to move to eight-under-par, tied for second with Dayne Moore, who slipped back in the third round with a 74.

Conditions were more difficult on Saturday with the wind picking up around the woodlands course.

“The wind was up today and it kept me busy, especially on the back nine,” Viljoen said. “I almost turned three-under but I was unfortunate on nine. I hot two gorgeous shots but I unfortunately went three metres too far and the ball rolled down the back and from there it’s bogey all day.

“And then on 10 I just nicked a tree, which threw me into trouble. So I had two bad lies in a row and then I had a bad bounce long-right on 13. I just struggled to get momentum on the back nine. But otherwise I was going well and played some flawless golf.”

The Serengeti Estates golfer said positive things is what he will be focusing on going into the final round as he chases his third Sunshine Tour title and his first since September 2022 at the SunBet Challenge Wild Coast.

“I’m trying to look at all the good bounces I got rather than the bad ones and I won’t be changing anything in my game-plan. My mental coach, Shaun Landsberg, has been working with me on uysing bad thoughts to my advantage. Last week I had a breakthrough, I must just let go and let it happen. My focus is going to be on where my confidence is,” Viljoen said.

KITWE – First-round leader MJ Viljoen played another solid round of golf but home favourite Dayne Moore was too great an adversary in the second round of the Mopani Zambia Open at Nkana Golf Club on Friday as he shot a spectacular 64, that included a hole-in-one, to snatch top spot on the leaderboard.

Viljoen followed up his excellent 66 in the first round with a two-under 70 on Friday, but still surrendered a two-stroke lead to Moore, whose 64 was his best ever round on the Sunshine Tour.

The Zambian’s hole-in-one came on the par-three third hole, but Moore produced plenty of superb golf as he went bogey-free and collected six birdies as well.

“Three is such a tough hole and I was just trying to get on to the top level, to be honest,” Moore said. “It was 221 metres to the flag and down off the right, and I hit a high six-iron which just came off exactly how I wanted.

“But the scorer at the back of the green wasn’t looking, so there was no reaction. When I walked up to the green, I actually started looking over the green at first. It’s my third hole-in-one and I got one on the Big Easy Tour at Wingate two years ago.

“But apart from being lucky at the third, my putter worked really well, especially on quite a few clutch par putts. And I hit 15 greens in regulation. I’ve been seeing coach Neil Cheetham and he has completely changed my long game, he has helped me a lot. That’s where I was lacking, because my short game has always been something I could lean on,” Moore said.

Moore leapt up to 10-under-par going into the weekend, and Viljoen was also on that mark after 12 bogey-free holes on Friday that included an eagle on the par-five second. But the par-fours coming in proved his stumbling block as he dropped shots on the 13^th, 14^th and 16^th holes, before birdieing the par-five 17^th to finish on eight-under-par.

Kyle Barker also had an excellent second round, shooting a 68 to claim third spot on six-under-par.

Jacques P. de Villiers and Fredrik From both shot 70s to share fourth place on four-under-par, while Lyle Rowe completed the top six, notching a level-par 70 on Friday for three-under-par.

Jason Roets was sharing second place after the first round with Keegan Thomas, but tumbled down the leaderboard on Friday, having six bogeys in his 76 that saw him finish on level-par.

Thomas suffered even more, struggling to an 80 in the second round, which left him on four-over-par.

It’s been an SA20 campaign of some angst for the Pretoria Capitals and their new coach Jonathan Trott, but a change of captain and bringing in a handful of fresh players saw them ease to an assured bonus point victory over the Joburg Super Kings at Centurion on Tuesday night, which will provide a considerable confidence-boost as the playoffs loom.

The Capitals came into this crucial local derby having won just one of their previous seven matches, but two No-Results and a bonus point win meant they weren’t knocked out of contention just yet. But another victory was almost essential and they pulled it off in style, winning by six wickets with fully eight overs to spare.

The triumph was set up in the field after new skipper Kyle Verreynne won the toss and sent Joburg in to bat. The bowlers responded with a superb display of calm discipline – conceding just one leg-bye and one wide as extras epitomised that – and the Capitals were brilliant in the field.

The pressure saw the Super Kings restricted to just 99 for nine in their 20 overs, the lowest SA20 total ever at Centurion.

Two players making their SA20 debuts set the tone with the ball. Australian Thomas Rogers was excellent up front, taking one for 20 in his four overs, while Gideon Peters, from North-West via Border but born in Pretoria, caused great unease in the middle overs with his sheer pace and excellent control. He finished with two for 15 in his four overs, dismissing two of Joburg’s international stars in Devon Conway (9) and Moeen Ali (0). And Peters very much got them out – Conway couldn’t handle the heat from a short delivery and was caught behind, while Moeen was trapped lbw by a searing leg-stump yorker.

The batting line-up also has a fresh look with Will Smeed, Ashton Turner and Keagan Lion-Cachet all in the top six.

Regular captain Rilee Rossouw was unavailable on Tuesday because his wife had given birth in the morning, but Verreynne confirmed after the match that the change of captain will be in place until the end of the tournament.

“We wanted to freshen up the team with new guys and they’ve had an immediate impact. We’ve had five guys sitting on the side who are very hungry and we did really nicely in the field, just keeping it simple,” Verreynne said.

“I thought with both the ball and in the field we were exceptional and we were really ruthless, which is maybe what we have lacked up till now. We just kept putting pressure on the Super Kings and the way we played is very pleasing and important because we’ve spoken about getting momentum to take into the back stretch of the competition.”

The Pretoria Capitals are now just one point behind the fourth-placed Super Kings, with both franchises having two games remaining. The Joburgers host Paarl Royals and Durban Super Giants, while the Capitals play home and away against MI Cape Town, so it is going to be a tense finale to the round-robin stages.

Joburg Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming was upset by his team’s failure to exhibit much tenacity. After their poor batting display, they were scattergun with the ball and sloppy in the field, two catches going down. The most crucial was Marques Ackerman being missed on 0 by Lutho Sipamla at deep backward point when Pretoria were two down inside the first five overs. The left-hander went on to score 39 off 22 balls, which settled the contest in poised fashion.

“It was a really bad one, a poor performance. There’s been a bit of a trend this season that batting first seems a bit more challenging, but the players didn’t have the mindset to work their way out of a tough situation. We were sloppy with the bat, the ball and in the field, so 0/3 of our skills worked, which is a problem,” Fleming said.

“The Capitals were able to extract variable pace and bounce, but we contributed to our own demise, we should have posted 140 but we just gave up too easily. You need to adapt to conditions and get a score on the board, but the modern player doesn’t seem to have that toughness to find a way to do it. It’s mostly mental.”

With the Western Cape teams playing such inspired cricket at the moment, Fleming admitted that it will now take a miracle for the Joburg Super Kings to finish in the top two and earn themselves two chances of making the final.

“We’re probably out of the race for one and two, but there are three teams hunting hard for the other two playoff places. We have our last two games at home, where we are very comfortable. So that’s a positive, but we have to play better,” Fleming said.

The Pretoria Capitals, meanwhile, seem to have found some belated inspiration. The rousing fast bowling of Peters had much to do with that. The 25-year-old was born and schooled in Pretoria and represented the SA U19s in 2018. He played 28 matches for Northerns across all three formats, but for some reason left to play for Border in 2021.

Thankfully for a bowler of his potential, he has been playing for North-West in Division One for the last two seasons.

While Peters may not be known to many, Verreynne had a brief but memorable meeting with him before they became SA20 team-mates.

“I played against him in a T20 match for Western Province last season. The first ball I didn’t see and the second ball got me out. So I knew what he was about and obviously I’ve seen him a lot in training now. He’s a serious talent with the ability to bowl 150km/h-plus, and his ability to bowl at any stage of the innings impresses me. Plus his attitude and hunger is most pleasing,” Verreynne said.