Ken Borland

At 22-years-old, Elrigh Louw was the baby of the Springbok team at the weekend, making his Test debut off the bench in the city of his birth, but the loose forward was certainly not over-awed as he produced a powerful display in the second-half comeback by the home side against Wales at Loftus Versfeld.

Whether carrying powerfully, making crunching tackles or standing up to the gibberish of Dan Biggar, Louw was influential in the half-hour he spent on the field.

Captain Siya Kolisi praised the Bulls talent afterwards saying, “Elrigh was special, it’s amazing how chilled he was.”

Louw himself exuded the air of someone with a very mature, focused head on his shoulders.

“We were under pressure when I came on, but I knew exactly what I had to do. I was able to enjoy it. I was actually more emotional when I heard I was in the 23 than running on the field,” Louw said after the 32-29 win.

“When I ran on, I knew my goal and I did not think about my emotions. I knew my Pa and Ma would be very emotional though.

“It’s an honour to hear my name mentioned as a Bomb Squad member, but the important thing was I knew exactly what the coaches expected of me,” Louw said.

The superb attack that resulted in Cheslin Kolbe’s crucial 65^th-minute try that closed Wales’ lead to just two points would see Louw go perilously close to scoring himself under the poles after a storming run.

“I just had one thing in mind and that was to dot the ball down on my debut, but Wales tied my shoelaces together quite well in the end,” Louw laughed.

He was more serious when taking co-responsibility for the rolling maul try the Springbok forwards conceded in the 77^th minute as Wales levelled the score at 29-29 with two forwards in the sin-bin.

“We will definitely go and have another look at that and what went wrong. For our pack that was not acceptable at all,” Louw said with a face that must have resembled the one he had whenever he was caught being naughty at Hoerskool Transvalia not that long ago.

But one of the nicest features of the weekend thriller in Pretoria was the birth of another new Springbok career that is sure to go a long way.

A hat-trick of second-half tries by Cornal Hendricks carried the Bulls to a brilliant 38-31 win over the Ospreys in their United Rugby Championship match in Swansea on Friday night, with the determined Welsh side overwhelmed by the physicality and clinical finishing of the visitors.

The Bulls led 12-10 at halftime and were not flattered as they looked in firm control of proceedings, being well-served by their powerful ball-carriers and the presence of Hendricks and Harold Vorster in midfield, until a dreadful blunder by fullback Canan Moodie inside his 22 gifted Ospreys an important try.

But Hendricks then stamped his mark on proceedings in the second half, obliterating the Ospreys backline, which included the highly-rated George North as his opposite number, with several knifing runs. His tries in the 47^th and 66^th minutes were provided by young Moodie, who more than made up for his early mistake by counter-attacking well and showing beautiful judgement when it came to the timing of his passes.

Just three minutes before completing his hat-trick, Hendricks rounded off a prolonged, patient build-up by the Bulls, featuring big carries by outstanding forwards Marcell Coetzee and Gerhard Steenekamp, when he sliced through the line again to score.

Hendricks’ hat-trick meant the job had been done for the Bulls, with a 38-17 lead and the bonus point in the bag, in terms of doing all they could to secure a home quarterfinal.

But Ospreys kept fighting in admirable fashion and were rewarded by two late tries which earned them two bonus points. By doing that, they ensured Scarlets have to beat the Stormers on Saturday to win the Welsh Shield and earn a place in the European Champions Cup.

A team’s fortunes in knockout rugby depend on your ability to convert your opportunities and Bulls coach Jake White will be delighted with how clinical his team were in the first half.

In the first quarter, they were in the Ospreys’ 22 twice and scored on both occasions, through wing Madosh Tambwe and then by flyhalf Chris Smith, who showed sharp footwork and thinking on the tryline.

With the Sharks losing to Ulster, the Bulls rose to third on the log and are in line for a home quarterfinal, providing one of Munster (v Leinster) or the Stormers lose on Saturday.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Madosh Tambwe, Chris Smith, Canan Moodie, Cornal Hendricks (3). Conversions – Smith (4).

Ospreys: Tries – Jac Morgan, Luke Morgan, Sam Parry, Luke Morgan. Conversions – Gareth Anscombe (4). Penalty – Anscombe.

To Bulls fans at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday evening, it would have seemed clear that they did not enjoy equity from the referee in the second half of their Currie Cup match against the Lions, but coach Gert Smal preferred to praise the opposition rather than blame the officials after the match.

The Bulls, having led 35-17 at halftime, ended up scraping to a 43-37 win as the Lions piled on relentless pressure in the second half. Referee Griffin Colby ended up penalising the Bulls 18 times in the match, and the Lions just eight times, and at one stage he gave 11 successive penalties to the visitors.

“I don’t want to say anything about the referee,” Smal said, “There is a system in place, comments go through Mark Lawrence and we will do that. We must remember referees are not perfect.

“The Lions started playing really well in the second half. And Juan Mostert had played well at flyhalf in the first half but then got injured, and we had to move Keagan Johannes there.

“So the Lions had their big guys running at our scrumhalf, who had to play flyhalf, and they gained a lot of momentum there. We were always under pressure to close the spaces down.

“It was sad that we could not keep our momentum in the second half, but this Lions team has been together for five weeks and they played very good rugby. They are a good team and they came hard at us. We struggled to get momentum and conceded unnecessary penalties,” Smal said.

Despite spending most of the second half inside their own 22, the Bulls produced a marvellous defensive effort, and Smal praised the tenacity and character they showed to pull through the win.

“In the first half we stuck to our plan, that was the way we wanted to play and it was outstanding. We were composed, the guys did what was expected and we did the small things well.

“In the second half there was big pressure on this team and it was good that they were able to get a good win. My message to them in the changeroom was that I am really proud of them and the way they applied themselves.

“No-one went and hid away and so we got the win by putting our bodies on the line. My captain, Lizo Gqoboka, was a real warrior and you should see what his face looks like now.

“But we would like to do the first-half game for the whole 80 minutes next time,” Smal said.

The Bulls host the Pumas in their next Currie Cup match, on May 27.

The Bulls had stretched Griquas to almost breaking-point in the first half of their Currie Cup clash at the weekend, but then allowed the visitors to come roaring back in the second half, coach Jake White making no bones about how disappointed he was with his players for some dumb moments both in discipline and in defence.

It was one-way traffic in the first 40 minutes at Loftus Versfeld as the Bulls cruised to a 36-5 lead with some clinical rugby. They extended their advantage to 41-5 early in the second half, but then two yellow cards in three minutes – to prop Lizo Gqoboka for collapsing a maul and to wing Madosh Tambwe for a deliberate knock-on – caused a total shift in momentum.

In the end Griquas were able to score six tries and the Bulls were relieved to win 48-38 in the end.

“Griquas made the Currie Cup semi-finals last year so they’ve showed they can play,” White said. “But with a URC team playing against a Currie Cup side and leading 36-5 at halftime, you would think you get a lot more out of the second half.

“Instead Griquas really got a roll on in the second half, which was very disappointing. The players must be proud to play for the Bulls, but they did not show that in the way they defended. They know how I feel about it because I let them know – we cannot defend like that.

“When it becomes too easy, you can play a bit too loose and that played into Griquas’ hands. It’s even more of an indictment that we were so far ahead, because that’s when you have to keep them out.

“And we speak about discipline every week but we had two yellow cards when we were more than 30 points ahead and not under any pressure. It was just too easy, it’s not as if they were pounding away at us,” White said.

While Tambwe’s yellow card came when he went for an intercept but could not hang on to the ball, killing a Griquas overlap in the process, the French-bound wing looked the classiest player on the park.

“Madosh has just improved so much,” White said. “His sheer understanding of what to do in defence killed a lot of Griquas attacks and he showed a real touch of class in setting up Canan Moodie’s try.

“His work-rate is also exceptional. We definitely want to keep him … maybe there will be some visa issues that keep him here … ” White joked.