Ken Borland

Munster coach Graham Rowntree hailed a top-class performance and a plan coming together as the defending champions moved into the top three of the United Rugby Championship standings with a tenacious 27-22 win over the Bulls in Pretoria.

The bonus point win saw Munster leapfrog the Bulls, deserved reward for beating the South African powerhouses at their home fortress of Loftus Versfeld, where they had previously not been beaten this season in the URC.

A beautifully-controlled first half saw Munster lead 17-10, but the Bulls mounted a strong comeback in the third quarter to take a 22-17 lead. But a red card for a head-on-head tackle by flyhalf Johan Goosen in the 54^th minute was a big turning point against the home side.

A pair of tries in the 58^th and 74^th minutes sealed a hard-fought win for Munster and the 53-year-old Rowntree was a delighted coach afterwards.

“The composure was special today, we had a good plan at altitude and stuck to it. We were in a good place at halftime but not so good in the third quarter. But we are used to these end-of-season pressure games, we have learnt to deal with adversity and move on quickly, and we had a great bench today.

“We had to stick to the plan with great skill, there was no panic. We had to kick very smartly, go away from the way we’ve been doing things for the last two years, when we have generally tried to keep the ball on the field.

“There are still elements of our game that need to be better, but this was an incredible performance against a team we really respect. They have power and pace and can really rip teams apart and we needed to be so much better at the start of the second half. But we believe in our defence, it’s one of the best in the league. It’s got to be against such a powerful team,” Rowntree said.

While Bulls coach Jake White said Goosen’s red card was a 50/50 decision that could have been deemed a ‘rugby incident’, Rowntree said it was an obvious call.

“I thought it was quite clear and easy. There was no mitigation and I was happy with the process. We make sure that we keep our tackles low, we practise that late drop into the tackle,” the former England prop said.

Wing Shane Daly, the scorer of the opening try, said Munster were a team with belief.

“We believe in ourselves, we play against the big teams and we get the results. That’s the big thing about this team,” Daly said.

Munster will next take on the Lions, who slayed top-of-the-log Leinster on the weekend, at Ellis Park.

Veteran scrumhalf Conor Murray scored for Munster in the 74th minute to snatch a 27-22 victory over the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night, moving the defending champions into the top three in the United Rugby Championship standings.

Graham Rowntree’s team were inspired in the first half as they took a 17-10 lead, but the second half saw them embroiled in a punishing dog-fight with the Bulls, despite the home side losing their flyhalf, Johan Goosen, to a red card in the 54^th minute.

Goosen was sent from the field after he rushed forward to try and envelop replacement scrumhalf Craig Casey ball-and-all, he was always upright in the tackle and made head contact with the halfback as he stood up. In a double blow for the Bulls, Canan Moodie’s try after he gathered the loose ball was disallowed. It would have put the home side 27-17 up after a strong start to the second half.

Casey left the field for a concussion check and never returned, and it was ironic that that brought the seasoned Murray back on the field and he claimed the matchwinning try.

The Bulls had dominated the opening exchanges of the second half, but as soon as Munster enjoyed a one-man advantage, they turned the screw and dominated the rest of the match.

The equalising try came just four minutes later when excellent flyhalf Jack Crowley put in a crosskick for John Hodnett, the replacement flank going around Moodie and through Kurt-Lee Arendse to score.

But the Bulls then stepped up a gear and were in their faces with tremendous defence, making it hard graft for the visitors to seal the deal.

With both packs bashing away at each other, Murray sniped around the defence to give himself some space and then reached over the decisive try.

Having been mostly the architects of their own problems in the first half, one could bet one’s house on the Bulls fighting back strongly after the break and they did that with two tries in the first 10 minutes. Lock Ruan Vermaak’s powerful surge set up field position, but the Munster defence was superb at close quarters. Eventually the Bulls went wide to the blindside wing and Kurt-Lee Arendse sniped over for the try.

Goosen’s arcing run then put the Bulls on attack again, leading to hooker Johan Grobbelaar going over from a tap penalty.

The former Springbok flyhalf kicked some lengthy touchfinders and a brilliant 50/22 that led to their opening try, eighthman Elrigh Louw muscling over from eight metres out, but Munster had the better kicking game and looked more secure tactically in the first half.

Lock RG Snyman showed why he is in the high-finance section of the rugby world with a dominant display, ruling the lineouts. The Bulls felt the pressure in the first half with several throws going astray, including the one pouched by hooker Niall Scannell in the 19^th minute, with the ball then slickly shipped out wide for wing Shane Daly to score in the corner.

The Bulls did level matters seven minutes later, but Munster were able to give themselves a handy halftime lead with 10 points in the last three minutes of the first half. The scrambling, never-say-die defensive effort kept the Bulls pinned in their 22, and as the visiting pack rumbled forward carry-after-carry, Snyman reached over for the try.

A Jack Crowley penalty on the whistle was an encouraging end to the half. It was not smooth sailing in the second half and the Bulls did help by shooting themselves in the foot, but Munster deserved the spoils for a performance of great character and control.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Elrigh Louw, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Johan Grobbelaar. Conversions – Johan Goosen (2). Penalty – Goosen.

Munster: Tries – Shane Daly, RG Snyman, Josh Hodnett, Conor Murray. Conversions – Jack Crowley (2), Penalty – Crowley.

Teams

Bulls: Le Roux, De Klerk, Moodie, Kriel, Arendse, Goosen, Papier, Steenekamp, Grobbelaar, W. Louw, Vermaak, Van Heerden, Hanekom, Ludwig, E. Louw.

Replacements – Williams for De Klerk (40th-41^st), Gumede for Hanekom (52^nd), C. Smith for Le Roux (63^rd), Van der Merwe for Grobbelaar (64^th), Matanzima for Steenekamp (64^th), M. Smith for W. Louw (64^th), Swanepoel for Van Heerden (69^th), Burger for Papier (72^nd), .

Munster: Zebo, Nash, Frisch, Nankivell, Daly, Crowley, Murray, Loughman, Scannell, Archer, Snyman, Beirne, O’Mahony, Kendellen, O’Donoghue.

Replacements – Coombes for O’Mahony (52^nd), Hodnett for Kendellen (52^nd), Casey for Murray (52^nd), Wycherley for Loughman (54^th), Murray for Casey (54^th), Clarke for Scannell (63^rd), Jager for Archer (63^rd), Carbery for Nankivell (67^th).

Curwin Bosch has been through hell this season and so has Sean Everitt for backing him, but the Sharks coach said he was delighted the flyhalf has made a strong return to form, highlighted by some marvellous attacking touches in their hard-fought 28-23 win over the United Rugby Championship defending champions and log-leaders Leinster at Kings Park at the weekend.

Bosch made a shaky start to the game by missing two penalties, but he grew into the game and made a significant impact on attack, making some great line-breaks as the Sharks showed their ability to counter from deep.

“I’m very happy for Curwin,” Everitt said, “he’s been criticised a lot and I was too for selecting him. But he’s showing the saying that form is temporary and class is permanent is true.

“He showed his all-round game, his defence has improved and his tackle percentage is up in the 90s, when that used to be a glaring weakness of his.

“He also showed what he can do on attack. He countered well, he took the ball to the line and he made good decisions.

“I’m very happy where his game is at the moment and I’m very proud of him for how he has stood up,” Everitt said.

While the counter-attacking brilliance of fullback Aphelele Fassi, assisted by Bosch, stole the limelight, Everitt praised his forwards for their performance, which meant the Sharks were in control of territory and possession for most of the game.

“I was really happy with the way the front row and the pack stood up. We look to them for ascendancy, and they certainly gave us that in the mauls and scrums.

“Aphelele has been out with a lengthy injury, but he was in form when it happened and we probably rushed him back a bit. But the character he is, he just gets on with it, he’s not fazed by anything.

“He has certainly got x-factor and you could see his kicking game has improved as well. It’s really good to have him back and hopefully he will get higher honours in June when the international window opens,” Everitt said.

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).