Ken Borland

As head coach and one of the chief setters of goals for the Bulls, Jake White said he was content with their two successive United Rugby Championship wins over the Lions, although he felt they missed a golden opportunity for another bonus point in their 21-13 win at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend.

After a torrid first quarter, the Bulls look set to repeat their 34-10 triumph at Ellis Park a week ago when they stormed into a 21-6 lead after 49 minutes. But mistakes and a creaking scrum continued to plague their performance and they failed to add to their score as the gutsy Lions fought their way back into the game.

“I said to the players that if I had been offered nine points in two matches against the Lions in two weeks then I would have taken that based on where we were,” White said.

“We had to find a way to jump up the log. But we had enough chances to get the bonus point again, but we just couldn’t score again. Which was not ideal because we had set it up nicely.

“But the rain came when we had gone from 6-0 down to 21-6 up, which meant we went 21-0 in the middle block of the game, so you can’t be too upset, we were doing something right.

“I’m not satisfied that we didn’t get the bonus point, but we also can’t be arrogant. Two weeks ago we were under pressure and now we have nine more points against a Lions side that beat the Stormers in the Cape,” White pointed out.

The former Springbok coach also said that the Lions were adept at using the black arts to further frustrate his side.

“The Lions did a very good job of making the game as scrappy as possible, they were off their feet, not rolling away, hands in. And it worked because they got close to getting the result,” White said.

“But we are going to play games like this again, when the referee’s interpretations are different, and you’ve got to find ways to win when you’re under the pump.

“You’ve got to be good enough to adapt to whatever happens. And so many things happened. We just want consistency, but the same situations are being seen differently. There’s no common sense.

“But we have to be good enough to take the referee out of the equation,” White said.

The Bulls produced a performance full of senseless mistakes but played enough decent rugby to just see off the Lions 21-13 in their United Rugby Championship derby at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The home side endured a torrid first quarter, especially in the scrums where Lions tighthead Carlu Sadie was a massive figure both figuratively and literally. And the Bulls kept being forced to scrum because they made a number of handling errors – half-a-dozen in the first 15 minutes alone.

Considering their messy start, the Bulls were fortunate to be only 6-0 down after the first quarter, Lions flyhalf Tiaan Swanepoel slotting two penalties.

While the Bulls were full of ambition in terms of playing ball-in-hand, expansive rugby and getting into the wide channels, they did it in rather frantic fashion and it was only once they started to keep the ball a bit tighter in the initial phases, earning the right to go wide, that they started to gain momentum in the game.

Keeping the ball tight among the forwards brought the first try when flank Marcell Coetzee forced his way over after a pick-and-go from a penalty under the poles.

And the Lions suffered a key blow just a minute before halftime when Sadie went head-first into a tackle, conceding a relieving penalty. The Bulls used a blindside move at the lineout, drawing another penalty, for offsides, and then their rolling maul went over for an important try, scored by hooker Johan Grobbelaar, to give them a 14-6 lead at the break.

There was little respite available for the Bulls in the second half though, as the admirable Lions pack continued to give their all. The Bulls continued to struggle in the scrums, even though referee Aimee Barrett-Theron gave them a couple of fortunate penalties, and the home side were just lucky that the Lions’ execution was poor, especially at lineout time.

It was typically scrappy derby rugby, brightened only by fullback Kurt-Lee Arendse’s try in the 49^th minute. It was a turnover penalty won by Coetzee that led to concerted pressure by the Bulls, centre Lionel Mapoe’s slick pass giving Arendse the space to drift outside his man in wonderful fashion and dart over for the try.

The Lions eventually gained some reward for their dominant scrum in the final quarter, allowing them to set a lineout maul inside the Bulls’ 22, from which lock Ruben Schoeman scored to cut the gap to 13-21.

But the Lions failed to hang on to possession long enough in the remaining eight minutes to put the Bulls under further pressure.

Scorers

Bulls – Tries: Marcell Coetzee, Johan Grobbelaar, Kurt-Lee Arendse. Conversions: Morne Steyn (3).

Lions – Try: Ruben Schoeman. Conversion: Tiaan Swanepoel. Penalties: Swanepoel (2).

The advent of the Currie Cup competition running concurrently with the United Rugby Championship has played a role, but Bulls coach Jake White was never going to change much for his team’s derby against the Lions at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, given how thoroughly they outplayed their neighbours last weekend at Ellis Park.

With the Bulls also having a midweek Currie Cup game, there has been little crossover between the two teams and the only change in personnel has been Cornal Hendricks replacing David Kriel on the bench. Zak Burger is now the starting scrumhalf with Embrose Papier coming off the bench.

It is a stark contrast to the Lions, who will bring a much-changed team to Pretoria with half-a-dozen big names missing.

“I have confidence in these players, the team is strong enough to win if we play well,” White said on Friday. “Victory is not a formality though, there are standards we have to meet and we have to make sure we play well again.

“The Lions will be different though and we expect they will play better. Their coach and captain has given them the gears and they have made several changes.

“That’s a massive message and clearly they’re telling their players that if they don’t play well, don’t pull their finger out, then they won’t get picked.

“We’ve had to field two teams this week, so circumstances have also played a part in us keeping the same group together. But I prefer our model, keep the combinations playing together so you get cohesion,” White said.

Beating the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld has been an impassable mountain for almost all visitors over the last couple of years, until the last fortnight, with the home side tasting defeat to the Stormers in the URC and then to the Free State Cheetahs in the Currie Cup.

“We don’t want to lose anywhere and there is internal pressure around that of course, that’s the way it should be,” White said. “But there’s no external pressure, rugby is meant to be fun and we’ve got to enjoy it.

“If it had been a do-or-die match in midweek against the Cheetahs then maybe we would have fielded our strongest team, but we are mindful of our end goal.

“In 1996, Super Rugby’s first season, the Canterbury Crusaders finished last and they became the most dominant team in the competition. One of the key attributes of a succesful team is understanding and synergy between the players.

“Being a bomb detonator – now that’s a pressure job!” White quipped.

He will be hoping his team bring the same explosiveness they produced at Ellis Park last weekend to avoid another bombshell upset at home.

Bulls team:Kurt-Lee Arendse, Canan Moodie, Lionel Mapoe, Harold Vorster, Madosh Tambwe, Morné Steyn, Zak Burger; Elrigh Louw, Arno Botha, Marcell Coetzee (CAPT), Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Jacques van Rooyen, Johan Grobbelaar, Simphiwe Matanzima. IMPACT-Bismarck du Plessis, Lizo Gqoboka, Robert Hunt, Janko Swanepoel, Muller Uys; Embrose Papier, Chris Smith, Cornal Hendricks.

The Free State Cheetahs showed that they might well be the team to chase in the Currie Cup as they downed the previously-unbeaten, two-time defending champions, the Bulls, 38-25 in an all-action display at Loftus Versfeld on Wednesday night.

It was clear from the outset, when the Cheetahs kept the ball alive with offloads and passing through multiple phases, that the visitors were after tries and they scored six of them. Two of them were via hooker Louis van der Westhuizen at the maul, but the rest were slickly worked and the reward for ball-in-hand rugby.

Flank Andisa Ntsila’s grubber through for wing Rosko Specman to score was an early highlight.

A helter skelter first 20 minutes saw the Bulls match the Free Staters on the scoreboard, even if they only scored two tries to the three of the Cheetahs. Nineteen-year-old debutant loose forward Cameron Hanekom was rewarded for following up a botched restart by the visitors for the opening try, and a good long pass out wide by flyhalf Chris Smith led to the second try by wing Stravino Jacobs.

Fullback Clayton Blommetjies cutting through for a try after a lovely angled run by flyhalf Siya Masuku was not enough to prevent Free State actually trailing by one point (19-20) at halftime.

But the Bulls were left chasing the game in the second half as very little went right for them.

They had practically zero lineout platform and a physical, streetwise Cheetahs pack meant the Bulls’ rolling maul had no traction.

Referee Paul Mente was also ruthless in targeting their ill-discipline and both lock Reinhardt Ludwig and prop Lizo Gqoboka were yellow-carded in the final quarter.

The problems started in the 47^th minute when wing Siyabonga Novuka was a fraction-of-a-second early in tackling Specman in the air. The Cheetahs set the maul, went wide right and then, when they came back left, there were no defenders left and lock Aidon Davis strolled over for the try.

The visitors built on their lead 12 minutes later when Van der Westhuizen rumbled over for his second try and Masuku then put in a lovely crosskick for Ntsila to score to put Free State 38-20 up and out of sight.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Cameron Hanekom, Stravino Jacobs, Siyabonga Novuka. Conversions – Chris Smith (2). Penalty – Smith. Drop goal – Smith.

Free State Cheetahs: Tries – Rosko Specman, Louis van der Westhuizen (2), Clayton Blommetjies, Aidon Davis, Andisa Ntsila. Conversions – Ruan Pienaar (4).