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.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt said the United Rugby Championship standings are so closely contested that he regrets his team did not put the 14-man Bulls away properly, instead allowing them two log points, while saluting the determination his side showed in defence.

The Bulls looked ripe for the taking at Loftus Versfeld as flyhalf Morne Steyn was red-carded for a late, high hit on Lukhanyo Am’s neck and the Sharks surged into a 14-0 lead after half-an-hour. But the Bulls fought back and actually dominated for long stretches of the game, forcing the Sharks to defend manfully in their 22. Especially after they had scrumhalf Grant Williams sent off permanently for a high hit on Steyn’s replacement, Chris Smith, who also left the field due to his head injury.

The Bulls had more than enough chances to snatch a remarkable victory, but eventually went down 22-29, with bonus points for four tries and losing by seven points in consolation.

“The log is so closely contested, so every point counts,” Everitt said. “We will enjoy this win, we haven’t beaten the Bulls at Loftus for quite some time, but there are obviously work-ons.

“But the character the guys showed was unbelievable, just keeping the Bulls out although they had 11 opportunities inside our 22 by halftime. So we showed great resolve and pride.

“It was a good but not complete performance by any means, but we did perform much better than last week.

“Defence is about character and I have to credit the team with defending really well. But when Grant went off at 26-12, the job was not done and we needed to be more accurate,” Everitt said.

One player who was faultlessly accurate was captain Lukhanyo Am, who produced two massive individual moments when he claimed a restart just after the Bulls had scored and dashed down the touchline before grubbering and regathering to score in the last play of the first half. His brilliant turnover when the Sharks were leading just 26-22 then won the penalty that was the final play of the match.

Everitt was unequivocal in describing Am as the best outside centre in the world.

“The skill he showed at the end and the try he scored just before halftime: He makes magic, he just gets it right every time,” Everitt said.

“His try took the wind out of the Bulls’ sails – to score and then immediately concede again. Lukhanyo is just an unbelievable player, making better decisions and executing better with age.

“I am totally convinced that we do have the best outside centre in the world in him,” Everitt said.

The squads

The Proteas won the series 2-1 the last time India toured South Africa in early 2018, in a hotly-contested series.

But they have lost much of their brawn from that series with the bulk of their attack – Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel – having retired and their powerful middle-order of Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis also no longer playing.

From that 2018 series, only six players are still in the Proteas squad – Elgar, Markram, Maharaj, Rabada, De Kock and Ngidi. And there are fitness doubts over Lungi Ngidi, who has only bowled seven competitive overs since July.

India are missing, due to injury, the combative all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma, one of their leading batsmen in recent years. Rohit is their highest-ranked Test batsman at No.5, but India still have plenty of batting muscle with four others from the top-20: Virat Kohli (6^th), Mayank Agarwal (12^th), Rishabh Pant (14^th) and Cheteshwar Pujara (17^th).

Jasprit Bumrah (11^th) and Mohammad Shami (18^th) will be the pace enforcers with the ball for India, but off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, number two on the rankings, is likely to be a major threat in the third and final Test at Newlands.

The venues

The same three grounds used in 2018 will be hosting the Tests again, but this time in a different order: SuperSport Park hosts the opener from Boxing Day, followed by the New Years Test at the Wanderers and then the series ends in Cape Town from January 11.

Batsmen found it hard to dominate in 2018 with Kohli and Dean Elgar the only batsmen to average over 40.

Hopefully the pitches in use this summer will provide a more even battle between bat and ball. Pitches with more even bounce would also be good because in 2018, the team that won the toss and batted first won all three matches, with terribly inconsistent bounce blighting the fourth innings.

Tactical approaches

South Africa could field a fiery trio of out-and-out fast bowlers in Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada and Duanne Olivier, making liberal use of the sort of short-pitched bowling Indian batsmen are generally not as used to facing and which has proven successful at both Centurion and the Wanderers. Lanky left-armer Marco Jansen also has plenty to offer in terms of pace and bounce.

Not that India’s pacemen are going to be at all generous to a South African batting line-up that has struggled to inspire in the last couple of years. If there is any assistance from the conditions, they will find it with the new ball and they are also very effective practitioners of reverse-swing.