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Currie Cup
Review
Steyn kicks Blue Bulls into final
Saturday, October 17
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The unerring boot of flyhalf Morne Steyn condemned Western Province to also-rans when he landed seven match-winning penalties in the Bulls 21-19 win in the Absa Currie Cup semi-final at Newlands on Saturday evening.
The match marked the end of a woeful day for Province who saw their age-grade sides taste defeat in the Under-19 and Under-21 divisions as well.
But knock-out clashes are all about using one's opportunities and Province had enough to chances at the death to wrap up a berth in the 2009 Currie Cup final but it was not to be.
The Bulls suffered a first-minute setback when their lock Bakkies Botha was yellow-carded for dangerous play. However, playing with a man short did not prove costly at all and, in fact, the Bulls ran up a 6-0 lead in the space of two minutes after their Steyn banged over two penalties to punish Province's early indiscretions.
Province tried to bounce back from their poor start but they lacked penetration once they managed to take play beyond the halfway line. Poorly placed upfield kicks by flyhalf Peter Grant, scrumhalf Dewaldt Duvenhage and fullback Joe Pietersen did not help their cause either.
The Bulls, on the other hand, showed far more cohesion in their early drives but their moves broke down once they approached the Province 22 metre area.
They did manage to capitalise on their territorial advantage when Steyn doubled his side's score after 18 minutes with two further penalties (12-0).
Province continued to battle to get their gameplan off the ground but they did manage to reduce the deficit in the 29th minute through a penalty by Pietersen after they took play up to the fringes of the Bulls 22 metre area (12-3).
In the ensuing play, the Bulls really piled on the pressure and they pinned Province down in their 22 metre area but they failed to break down the stubborn but well-organised Province defence after an eight-minute passage of intense pressure.
Province finished the half strongly and for the first time in the match looked like scoring a try as they took the ball through several phases ahead of the break. Their efforts were worth a try but, in the absence of variation, they were thwarted just short of the Bulls' tryline.
They did, however, exact a measure of reward when Pietersen goaled a penalty a minute ahead of the break (12-6).
This fiery display at the death of the first half saw Province return to the field stoked with fierce determination to take the game to the visiting Bulls. As a result Province ran hard at the Bulls' defence in early second-half play but again Province could not find a way to the tryline.
A 50th minute penalty by Pietersen raised a mighty cheer from the crowd of 47, 982 and this was the cue for the home side to persist with their adventurous approach in their efforts to topple the powerful Bulls line-up (12-9).
Six minutes later, Steyn again intervened with a penalty to open a six-point lead (15-9) but this failed to put a damper in the ranks of Province who briefly turned the match on its head with a 58th minute try.
Wing Gio Aplon outstripped the cover defence to pounce on a kick-ahead and Pietersen added the conversion to give Province the lead for the first time in the (16-15).
The ding-dong battle on the scoreboard continued four minutes later when Steyn gave the Bulls the lead once more when he landed his sixth penalty of the match (18-16).
Still Province refused to lie down and with substitute loosie Schalk Burger stealing the limelight with a few monster hits, the match was far from over.
Pietersen nailed a 68th minute penalty to restore the lead for Province (19-18) and their game continued to thrive, much to the delight of the home fans who raised the roof with their traditional Province chant.
With about eight minutes playing time left, the Bulls seemed to be losing their edge as the Province pressure seemed to be taking its toll and the Bulls unable to break out of their half.
Time seemed to be running out for the Bulls as a succession of line-outs and scrums in their own half saw the clock running down.
Three minutes from the end, the Bulls did manage to transfer play into the Province half where the home side committed one error too many and Steyn hammered over a penalty some six metres into the opposition half to steal victory for his side (21-19).
The victorious Bulls will now go on to play the Cheetahs in the final in Pretoria in two weeks' time.
Scorers:
WP: Try: Gio Aplon. Conversion: Joe Pietersen. Penalties: Pietersen (4)
Blue Bulls: Penalties: Morne Steyn (7).
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Well done to Province, unfortunately it was not yours to be.
1.Mark Lawrence
2. Slaapie Doenie'n(edited)ie
I thought the Cheetahs may just pull it off and they did!!Well done to the winners.Now The Cheetahs to win the final to make my day!!!!!!!
MY GRAN KIDS ARE GONA HEAR ABT THAT TACKLE WOAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My heroe!
Well done Province, you've given us much to be proud of this season, undoubtedly the team of the competition!!!
More of the same next year.
Let me tell you that the stormers are back, super 14 2010 is going to great for them, Watson is gone and they will grow..
The better team won simple, well done to the bulls I'm sure they will remember that game for a long time
Another feather in the hat of Morne Steyn, he produced when it was neccesary yet again.
Habana should have been yellow carded for a professional foul when WP looked certain to score and the same applied in the last minute of the first half when they had strung loads of phases together only for the Bulls to go offside with the overlap on the outside. Negative play by the Bulls in the red zone.
Add to that Grant "not rolling away" even though he was initially trapped and then the ball popped out, and then Vermeulen being blown for going in at the side when one of the Bulls played him from the side when he himself wasn't joining the ruck. And as for Kruger being outscrummed and popping his head and then winning a penalty... I just had no clue what Lawrence was doing.
Add a 5 m forward pass that went unnoticed and not to mention the TMO trying to find a knock-on fron a certain try... What the heck... it was a joke!
I'm proud of the Province boys and no doubt you biased guys will see this as sour grapes but go watch the game again... it was a travesty. Lawrence and Jonker (and even Joubert) were along with Kaplan probably the 4 best refs in the world last year. However, this season they have been shameful... it appears it has all gone to their heads if you ask me.
Nevertheless, well done to the Bulls (you can't blame them for the bad reffing) and in particular Morne Steyn... you really are a fine player!
From a personal perspective leaving the UK for a year and living in Aus means I'm even further away from that Burke...life couldn't get better in sunny Cairns!
Province really put the pressure on the Bulls scrum. At one point Gurthro put his hand on the turf after a big engagement by the Province front row and wasn't penalised. That is exactly what Blaauw constantly got blown up for last week against the Lions. This was in a kickable position. I am not however trying to blame the ref, I am trying to illustrate how tough the scrums were!
The Bulls deservedly pulled it out of the fire and Province came at them hard, VERY hard. Look at a few giant hits by Schalk! AWESOME.
The Bulls are awesome and I respect them. I do however have a problem with their d@@s fans. A guy like Gazz who tells the province fans to go f..k themselves. What a KNOB!!!! That gives what was one of the physical games of the century a sour taste.
YOU PEOPLE NEED TO GROW THE F>>K UP! That goes for Bulls and Province supporters that make remarks like that! This was an awesome game, much more entertaining than the ass wipping the Bulls gave the Chiefs in the S14 semi! Never before this season was the Bulls tested like yesterday when at full strength!
Andries and Anton stood toe to toe with Bakkies and Victor the whole way through. The introduction of Schalk for Anton was a smart move. The introduction of Sireli wasn't.
In any event, this game was evidence that no other country in world rugby can stake claim to a local competition as tough as this.
Go Currie Cup, Go Bulls, and lastly.....
Go PROOOOOOOOVIIIIIIIIIIIIIINCE!!!!!!!!!
Well done to Gurthro, Vic, Bakkies, Pierre, Danie, Wynand, Bryan, Zane, Andries and particularly Spies, FdP, Schallas and Morne....you guys showed what being a Bok is all about.
Then to Brok, Wicus, Tiaan, Anton, Francois, Duanne, Luke, Dewaldt, De Jong and particularly Joe Pietersen....you guys showed why being a Bok is such an accomplishment. You guys are good enough any day.
Between these two sides you can pick a Bok team and bench that will wip any other international side till they cry for their mommy! My side looks like this.
15. Joe Pietersen (EOYT Please)
14. Francois Hougaard (EOYT Please)
13. Juan de Jong (EOYT Please)
12. Wynand Olivier
11. Bryan Habana
10. Morne Steyn
9. Fourie du Preez
8. Pierre Spies
7. Schalk Burger
6. Dewaldt Potgieter (EOYT Please)
5. Vic Matfield
4. Bakkies Botha
3. Brok Harris
2. Tiaan Liebenberg (EOYT Please)
1. Wicus Blaauw
16. Gurtro Steenkamp
17. Werner Kruger
18. Derek Kuun
19. Danie Rossouw
20. Duanne Vermeulen (EOYT Please)
21. Peter Grant (No scrummie needed due to Hougaard)
22. Gio Aplon (Explosive sub)
23. Newlands crowd!!!
Just my opinion
The bulls won by penalties. only penalties. Sure, a win's a win, but it really is pretty embarrassing bragging about it.
Bulls three best players:
1. Morne Steyn
2. Mark Lawrence
3. Sireli Naqelevuki (on for 3 mins, man of the match)
BULLE!
province made me proud though. they played winning rugby and never changed their style of play. aplon, petersen! what boykies! aplon tackled the biggest players on the pitch without fear. the forwards played as a unit and its impossible to single out one or two players. there was dignity in this defeat.
this performance gives me lots of hope for the 2019 S14 season; SA rugby seams to be in great shape. any team here could have taken the win and deserved it.
at the end it was the bulls who pulled it through and congratulations to them.
PS grow up gazz; you sound like a little (edited); embarrassing to say the least
Firstly, you guys can say what you want but Lawrence was blew WP out of this game. I think the only penalty he might have gotten right was when that useless MEAT SACK naqelevuki made a high tackle, the rest was madness.
1. Penalizing Francois Louw whilst he was clearly the tackler, no ruck was formed, and he was on his feet?! The reasoning Lawrence gave was that Louw's head was close or pointing towards the ground or some nonsense...I know, WHAT?!
2. Penalized Blauw twice for murdering R Gerber. His hit was straight & he went straight over Gerber, so who's fault is it then that Gerber is retreating in a backwards/sideways direction? He's the one that can't handle the pressure.
That amounts to at least 3 unwarranted penalties...game changing I would say.
On WP's performance: I'm really gutted to say the least as I truly believed we had the win. Every province player on that field was putting his body on the line in a way that we haven't seen in a lot of years, they were playing for their province, for their fans...and then steps in Sereli Naqelevuki...who looks like he lacks the intelligence to complete a four piece puzzle, let alone understand the rules of Rugby Union, and gives away a penalty purely because he's a lazy player, idiotic player!
Please Rassie, trade that guy for a washing machine or if you have to pay him an obscene amount of money to leave, I don't really care, as long as the "FIJIAN TURD" can get on the first plane back to the hole that he sprung out of.
I'm not one to moan about the ref, but I picked up province breaking the rules many times without penalties getting awarded against them.
Province defended well on the day, but I guess in the end all that matters is the team moving on to the final!
Don't blame the ref, or this or that..... You lost!!
It was pretty easy to see that all the Boks are fatigue..., that is why the Sharks lost, and the Bulls scrapped through. It's really though to play a S14, Lions Tour and the 3Nations, and come back to play a play-off game.... Be honest about this.
I know they are profesional sports men, but the body and mind can only handle x amout of stress.
Well done to the WP, you trully deserved to be in the Semi's, but in the end it was 5minutes to long... Remember, you lost against the best provincial team in the world....
Go the BULLS!!!!!!!!!
I thought WP defence was outstanding! Well done to them, they deserved to be more in the final than Cheetahs or Sharks.
Bulle were ouplayed for about 30 mins in the match but we held our defence and once again showed BMT. Steyn is a legend!!!
GO BULLE!!!
But let’s leave it be. I was at Newlands and all I want to say is thanks to WP rugby and all their supporters for putting on such an awesome show. The atmosphere was something out of this world and WP has nothing to be ashamed about, but unfortunately for you the final will take place in the Fortress that is Loftus!
GO BULLE.
It was awesome to see Schallas handing out pain like in the old days. What a legend.
Well done Bulls. Class act. Province will be back next year just a little bit older and wiser I hope!!
Just have to say congrats to the finalists, but Province you were inspsiring considering the team you played (best club team in the world undoubtably) and the fact that you were written off a week ago. Future is good all round.
Great game. In a game as close as this one was the best team didn't win or lose as either side could've snatched it. Hats off to an amazing Bulls side. Sad to say, but I don't think we will see a complete side like this one in the provincial ranks again.
Don't jump on the province will be great bandwagon. We only had to play the Bulls once, but in the Super 14 we will have to play the Bulls week in and week out. much diferent scenario than a currie cup semi final, but next year should be much better than this year.
As for the ref... The Bulls won fare and square, for 80minutes of the game they had the same ref as we did.
I will tell the bulls this. Sleep good, sleep tight because next year we are coming for what we believe belong in Cape Town. THE CURRIE CUP.