Mike Greenaway
The Bulls have picked up where they left off in the United Rugby Championship by beating Western Province 30-25 in an opening round Currie Cup match at the Cape Town Stadium yesterday.
The Pretoria men were by some margin the best South African team in the URC and on yesterday’s evidence, they will be hard to beat in the Currie Cup. The match was played in atrocious conditions as a cold front grips the Cape and both teams should be praised for defying the heavy rain to provide an entertaining contest.
The home team scored a seven-pointer at the full-time hooter to make the score respectable but the Bulls were always in charge and scored four tries to three.
It was a homecoming of sorts for Bulls captain Nizaam Caar, the former Stormer, and his team was packed with new recruits in Cobus Wiese, Sintu Manjezi, Aphiwe Dyantyi, Boeta Chamberlain and Alulutho Tshakweni.
Wiese, who began his career at the Stormers before moving to the Sale Sharks, was the Man of the Match and a key part of a Bulls pack that outmuscled their opponents.
Carr said the Bulls had taken careful note of the expected weather and fashioned a suitable game plan.
“Early in the week we saw the long-term weather forecast and we decided how to approach the game,” he said. “We trained for the weather and are extremely happy that we executed the plan well.
“We anticipated that it would be wet and windy and we decided not to play any rugby in our half. We knew there would be a lot of scrums. We got that right. I think there were 16 scrums.”
The weekend’s action kicked off on Friday in Kimberley where the Pumas laid down a marker by beating their great rivals, Griquas, 44-24. It was a statement of intent from the 2022 champions after they lost to Griquas in the SA Cup final in May.
On Friday evening, the Sharks came within a conversion attempt of beating the Lions in Durban but Lionel Cronje could not add the extras after captain Nick Hatton had scored in the last minute. The Lions won 26-25 to give new Sharks Currie Cup coach JP Pietersen an unfortunate debut.
On Saturday, the Cheetahs overwhelmed the Grifffons, their neighbours from Welkom, 82-20 at the Free State Stadium. The Griffons are in a rebuilding phase and 10 players made their debuts against a settled Cheetahs side. The visitors did their best in the first half but were overwhelmed in the second, conceding 50 points.