Morné boots Bulls into final
23 May 2009
Morné Steyn potted four drop goals in the Bulls’ clinical 36-23 win over the Crusaders at Loftus Versfeld.
Steyn racked up 21 points in a masterfully controlled display of play-off rugby. The result guarantees a home final for the Bully Boys, and the performance will give them confidence ahead of their meeting with the Chiefs next Saturday.
The scoreline belies the enormity of the Bulls’ blend of physical effort and mental determination. They were always favourites before kickoff, but after the opening exchanges, there may have been some doubt.
The most frightening thing about the Crusaders’ initial dominance was the ease with which they attacked and the tenacity with which they defended. It would’ve taken a fantastic leap of faith to predict a Bulls’ lead at the end of the half, and yet, the Bully Boys recovered from a 13-point deficit to lead 27-20 at the break.
The Saders had the better of the initial breakdown exchange, and despite a score by Bryan Habana, they controlled possession well. Adam Whitelock finished a great move to regain the lead, and a clinical touchline conversion by the super-cool Leon MacDonald extended the advantage.
A high hoist was well contested by Kieran Reid who soared above a bewildered Akona Ndungane, claimed the ball, swiveled and scored.
But the hosts never panicked. Apart from a few defensive errors their tactical approach had been spot on from the first, and they persisted with this strategy for the remainder of the half. The difference was their accuracy, and despite a 20-3 scoreline in favour of the Crusaders, the Bulls played with full confidence.
Ndungane atoned for his earlier sin by finishing off a wonderful wide strike. Fourie du Preez had the expected impact with the boot, but his exemplary distribution and vision was apparent throughout. Spotting an opportunity out wide, Du Preez spun a flat cut-out pass to Zane Kirchner, who in turn drew the final man to set up Ndungane for a simple run-in.
Steyn’s line kicking was accurate and his goal-kicking impeccable, but his two first-half drop goals ensured the Bulls maintained their point-scoring momentum. The Crusaders began to grow desperate at the tackle point and it was at this stage No 8 Thomas Waldrom was sent to the sin bin.
The visitors launched one final wave of attack that was successfully turned over by the rampant Bulls. Pierre Spies ran a clever support line and embarrassed the Crusaders’ outside backs, beating them in a 40m sprint for the tryline.
The second half began much as the first with the Crusaders applying an incredible amount of pressure at the breakdown. A drop goal by scrumhalf Andy Ellis got the Crusaders within striking distance, and it was clear the team with the better temperament would take the spoils.
Steyn never shown any sign of missing a penalty opportunity in the 67th minute, nor did he look like fluffing a third drop attempt from right in front. At 33-23, the Bulls were playing smart rugby and looking more comfortable. Conversely, the Crusaders were dropping passes and racking up the errors in their mad scramble to reduce the deficit.
The death blow arrived in the 71st minute when Steyn lined up his fourth drop goal, this time from the halfway line. The Crusaders barely looked up to see if the kick was true and Steyn never stuck around once he’d made contact. The kick was as good as three points as soon as it had left his boot.
The Crusaders never gave up, but neither did the Bulls, winding down the clock in the final minutes to deny the visitors any consolation.
By Jon Cardinelli
974 Comments
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24 May 2009, 01:15 am
#947 carol: In my opinion it would embarrass your guests if you get up early. Give the poor bloke the privacy to untangle him self from the tree with some dignity before you show up. It just seems the right thing to do, don’t you think?
24 May 2009, 01:16 am
#853 JL1: Keep missing you on here….Great to meeet you last week. You have a very wicked grin!!
24 May 2009, 01:17 am
#948 carol: The game was awesome! Both teams showed courage and class. Did you enjoy what you could see of Loftus?
I am sure the BI Lions also watched with interest
24 May 2009, 01:18 am
#949 SA Barbarians: I will bear that in mind…..thin I am ready to go to bed now, thanks for the chat xx
24 May 2009, 01:19 am
#952 carol: Sleep well Carol
24 May 2009, 01:20 am
#951 SA Barbarians: Actually got a pretty good pictue, the screen froze a few times.
I have to say it filled me (as a travelling Lions follower), with trepidation, I should think they are feeling slightly out classed at this point!!!
24 May 2009, 01:20 am
Welll done Bulls. I was concerned about possesion and Parrot. The Parrot was caged!!!! I knew Spies was gonna hava cracker. There goes my thinking on Steyn.
24 May 2009, 01:20 am
#953 SA Barbarians: Cheers and you!
24 May 2009, 02:19 am
#584 Sheriff: Your probably hoping the bulls must really win next weekend cause it would really make you look silly if ya didnt
24 May 2009, 02:40 am
For starters, we can surely shelve for the short-term the passionate Pierre Spies v Ryan Kankowski debate: incumbent first-choice No 8 Spies, barring mishap, is going to run out deservedly for the first Test at Kankowski’s home base of Durban.
The human freight train was immense on Saturday, finally turning in the sort of 80 minutes of power and purpose he has sometimes been guilty of doing in too-selective bursts.
There can be few more enthralling sights than a breakout Spies sprint to the try-line – sort of a rhino on a diet of double-espressos, if you like — and we got one of his better ones just before half-time, the icing on a blinding eight-minute passage of play in which the Bulls turned a 13-point deficit into a seven-point lead which pretty much doused the Crusaders’ aspirational fire.
“We were perhaps a little bit shell-shocked at half-time,” losing captain Richie McCaw conceded, once the dust had finally settled on a footballing sizzler.
24 May 2009, 06:39 am
#958 superBul: Powell will smoke Spies like he did last Autumn.
24 May 2009, 07:53 am
#959 Big Hit: Yeah BIG lets see, Lets do the talking on the field.
Read a piece in the Sunday Times of SA, bad old memory but great names, some of them the best in Rugby history.
Colin Bryden Published:May 24, 2009
Lion King: Willie John McBride goes up for the ball against the Springboks. Pictures: Gallo/Getty Images
Wizards from Wales: The 1974 Lions scrumhalf-flyhalf combination, Gareth Edwards and Phil Bennett
Stuck in a time warp, the lumbering Boks were humbled
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Four-page special pullout on British Lions tour starts here
SA had seen nothing like this — and selectors panicked
There are a handful of memories in sport that transcend scores or statistics. Graeme Pollock playing cricket, Ernie Els swinging a golf club, the Brazil football team of 1970 (albeit only on television) — and the 1974 British Lions playing rugby.
The second Test at Loftus Versfeld was the most complete rugby performance I have witnessed.
It only took a few minutes on that June afternoon in Pretoria to realise the Springboks were totally, utterly outclassed. The only thing to do was admire and applaud Willie John McBride’s magnificent men as they won 28-9, or, more significantly, by five tries to nil at a time when tries counted only four points.
The Lions of 35 years ago had incomparable players and played intelligent, creative rugby.
From JPR Williams at fullback to Ian “Mighty Mouse” McLauchlan at prop, the Lions bristled with quality.
The Springboks, on the other hand, were stuck in a time warp. With no television to keep local administrators aware of trends in the world game, they contributed to their downfall with appalling, panic-stricken selection after losing the first Test by what was in a retrospect a respectable margin.
The score in the opening Test at a muddy Newlands was 12-3 and Danie Craven was caustic in his criticism at the traditional after-match capping of six new Springboks.
Instead of looking at the positive, which was that the Boks hadn’t conceded a try against an exceptionally good team, the selectors picked up on Craven’s cue and made seven changes plus a positional switch for the second Test.
Living in the then-Rhodesia and reporting on the side coached by Ian McIntosh, it had become apparent to me that the coaching of British rugby had taken a quantum leap forward, while the South African game had fallen behind.
Cardiff had toured Rhodesia in 1972 and brought with them the brilliant Gareth Edwards at scrumhalf, and a glimpse of a style of rugby in which ball retention and support play were taken to new heights.
McIntosh, already influenced by Natal’s Izak van Heerden, picked up more pointers from Carwyn James, the visionary Welshman who coached the Lions to success in New Zealand in 1971. Despite being outweighed in the forwards, Rhodesia reached the Currie Cup semifinals in 1973.
Rhodesia’s mastery of new skills counted for nothing when they were outplayed 42-6 by the Lions, fielding seven of their Test side, just four days before the Loftus Test.
It was thus with no expectation of Springbok glory that I took my place in Loftus Versfeld’s old wooden main stand, part of a crowd of 63500.
The Lions forwards established the platform. McLauchlan, Bobby Windsor and Fran Cotton were a formidable front row, McBride and Gordon Brown two powerful locks and Fergus Slattery, Roger Uttley and the great Mervyn Davies a dominant loose trio.
An abiding memory is of the incomparable Edwards seeming to have all the time in the world to decide how he and the dazzling flyhalf Phil Bennett would launch their next foray against the lumbering South Africans.
The Lions led 10-3 at halftime, with the wing JJ Williams scoring two tries against a drop goal by Gerald Bosch, then ran the Springboks ragged in the second half to add three more tries, one an astonishing solo effort by Bennett.
Ian McGeechan, who coached the successful Lions in 1997 and will try to repeat that feat this year, played at centre and contributed a drop goal, to the humiliation. It was the biggest margin of defeat suffered by a Bok team up to that point.
There was no need of the famous “99” call to violent retribution at Loftus. That came in the next Test in Port Elizabeth after the Springboks made a ridiculous 10 more changes for the third Test at Port Elizabeth and resorted to physicality. The result, though, was almost the same, 26-9 and a crushing series win for the Lions.
In the course of 22 matches, the Lions took their talents to far-flung points of southern Africa, from Potchefstroom to Windhoek, from Mossel Bay to Kimberley and even to Mdantsane as they offered a sop to anti-apartheid activists.
Only in the final Test did they let down their guard, a 13-13 draw spoiling a perfect record. Still, they remained undefeated on the tour.
Even though there was no television, newspaper and radio coverage ensured that members of the touring team became household names, more so than in the current age of instant gratification where teams flit in and out of the country before developing a recognisable personality.
The 2009 Lions will, at least, make a proper tour, even if 10 matches are less than half the number played in 1974. And the first Test, on June 20, will be played just two days short of the 35th anniversary of one of rugby’s seminal performances.
24 May 2009, 08:54 am
Crusaders played right into Bulls hands by giving them all that space in midfield to counter with and turn the deficit around, doubt Lions will afford the Boks that much latitude.
24 May 2009, 09:04 am
• ’n Crusader-afrigter wat die Bulls vir hul ‘slim’ rugby loof?
’n Paar jaar gelede sou dit dalk nog ondenkbaar gewees het, maar dit is presies wat Todd Blackadder gesê het ná sy span gister die knie in die Super14-halfeindstryd teen die Bulls op Loftus Versfeld gebuig het.
En nou glo dié voormalige All-Black dat die Chiefs maar baie lugtig vir Victor Matfield se span moet wees.
“Hulle het regtig slim gespeel. Ons eerste 20 minute was seker ons beste van die seisoen, maar hulle het hul kanse gebruik – al het dit ’n bietjie briljantheid gevat,” het Blackadder gesê met verwysing na Morné Steyn se vierkuns aan skepdoele en veral die skitterdrieë van Pierre Spies en Bryan Habana in die eerste helfte.
“Hulle het eenvoudig die druk op ons gehou en ons tot foute gedwing. Dit was nie oor ons moed gekort het dat ons verloor het nie”
Die Crusader-kaptein, Richie McCaw, het met Blackadder saamgestem oor die manier waarop die Bulls die Crusaders uit die wedstryd gesmoor het met ’n wenplan wat die Crusaders naderhand raadop gehad het.
McCaw het egter benadruk dat die Crusaders, as 2008 se kampioen, vanjaar voortreflik gevaar het deur met baie jong spelers en ontwrigting vanweë beserings tot in die reeks se halfeindronde te vorder.
Blackadder en McCaw was duidelik beïndruk met die manier waarop hulle deur die Bulls uitoorlê is en het gesê die Chiefs sal hul storie moet ken as hulle Saterdag se eindstryd op Loftus wil wen.
“Dit kan interessant wees om te sien hoe die Bulls die week herstel aangesien vandag ’n baie fisieke wedstryd was,” het McCaw gesê.
Harde Bulls-duikslae het veroorsaak dat die besoekers elke nou-en-dan aandag van die mediese span moes kry.
“Maar die Bulls speel ‘n soort rugby waar hulle die punte vat as die geleentheid hom voordoen en ek dink dit is waar die Chiefs kan sukkel.
Daar wag nietemin ’n baie goeie wedstryd,” het die All-Black kaptein gesê.
Blackadder glo die Chiefs het ander sterkpunte as die Crusaders en daarom sal hulle steeds in hul vermoë om te wen glo.
“Maar die manier wat die Bulls kan speel en balbesit beheer en foute straf met daardie skepdoele maak dit baie moeilik.
“Daar wag ‘n uitstekende eindstryd.”
24 May 2009, 09:32 am
Congratulations Bully Boys and commiserations Gallant Crusaders.
Well done both teams…BRING ON THE FINAL.
WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP
24 May 2009, 09:35 am
#959 Big Hit: hey BIG.
HOW GOOD WAS
ROCKY
ROCKY
ROCKY
Loved hearing the crowd CHANT his name. He had an awesome game.
An excellent game of rugger all round.
Congratulations Leinster and commiserations Leicester
24 May 2009, 11:09 am
The Bulls forward pack as a combination,showed once on song they simply are the best in the competition which allowed
he loose trio and scrum and fly half to dominate.
Once again I was absolutely surprised to to see the lack
of sheer pace in the Crusaders back line.
With just a full back to beat,hell the Cheetahs would
have loved to have had,more opportunities like that in their
game.
For the Crusaders having lost 13 of their top players,although
not in one season,they have to find a replacement for
McDonald and have to find at least one real paceman to
exploit the opportunities they are able to create.
Perhaps if PDV plays his cards right and employs real
pace on the wings the touring Lions and the Aussies and
New Zeeland may well be on the receiving end in the
Tri Nations.
24 May 2009, 11:29 am
don’t get ahead of yourself Brentie. But I agree, there is well founded hope. And good morning. Here for a minute before I get a crack over the head from an angry saucepan weilding handbrake who has an idea about an errand or two or three. So, what an unbelievable performance from our cousins up north. That Bulls performance must go down as one of the best(from any side) I’ve seen. This is not traditional Bulls rugby as I know it. This was “total” rugby in every sense of the word. A 15 man effort where I struggled to find a weak link. Some were simply outstanding and it is probably unfair to the team to name them. The Chiefs can’t be looking forward to next saturday’s battle I’m sure. My closing wish if for all the Bulls to come through next weeks final uninjured and we can then look forward to something special against the Lions. Bring it on.
24 May 2009, 13:02 pm
Absoultely brilliant!!! This is very good for the SA Rugby!! Our top players are on form and hungry for success…this bodes very well for the Lions tour! Clearly the Lions tour is proving a serious motivation this year just like the World Cup did! Can’t see the Bulls losing in their backyard! What great prep for the B&I Lions to be playing in a high pressure final! The Lions may have had more time to train together but our players will hopefully be in a better condition.
24 May 2009, 13:29 pm
Well done Bulle. Superb performance and some great rugga mixed in with the usual physicality. I’m not a Bulls fan, but you guys had me off my chair at the end of the 1st half!
24 May 2009, 16:06 pm
966. TASSIES
Before their forwards caved in under the Bulls pressure
the Crusaders back line penetrated,in the absence of Olivier
and Nel,the Bulls back line far to easily.
On one occasion with only the full back to beat,they should have scored easily and may just have shaken the Bull’s
confidence, but they didn’t.
The Bulls pack laid the foundation for Morne’s drop goals
and the 12 points from that was more or less the difference
between the two teams.
As usual I reckon the Lions will have some pace outside
abd classy players like O Driscoll will exploit any
weakness in the Bok’s mid field.
The Chiefs have a more competent back line but in my opinion
cannot match the Bulls up front,if however they get the
same opportunities presented,they will nail the Bulls.
as far as the Tri-Nations is concerned I always felt
our back line never really fired and the failed to get
our wingers into space.
Guys like Habana must be given the opportunity to run
from good front foot ball.He once again showed on saturday
hat he is a slippery customer and his try left the Crusaders
a bit bewildered.
25 May 2009, 02:53 am
Well done Bulls – you truly deserve to be in the final and to take it.
25 May 2009, 10:21 am
Fantasties BULLE !!!
Julle het my hart warm laat klop.
Aaai maar dis lekker om ‘n BUL te wees.
Sterkte vir Saterdag !!!
25 May 2009, 12:30 pm
#964 RugbyRulz: Rocky was just awesome
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