The Bulls called on all their champion qualities to repel the Cheetahs, whose ill discipline was their undoing.
SHOOT: I'll remember this Currie Cup as a game about sending a player into the corner, and wrist slapping for the last 20 minutes. This is the Cheetahs against the Blue Bulls. There's supposed to be fierce rivalry. That's why the stadium is packed. So you get players pummeling each other during game time, and between plays hiking up someone's shorts of slapping someone on the head afterwards. To give the Bulls the game on a silver player denied the fans and the players a real chance to play the game. And that was the refs fault. Technically he may have been right, but he ruined a game everyone had come to watch. The Cheetahs could have been more disciplined, but if you want sterile rugby, maybe they should call it something else. Netball or something.
The Blue Bulls won here last night but it was the rousing fightback from the Cheetahs that prevented this match from descending into a farce.
The Bulls conquered because of stellar performances from their game breakers in the first half but they were required to guts it out in the second.
As is his wont, Morne Steyn routinely raised the flag and contributed 21 points, while Bryan Habana scored two tries in his last game at Loftus in a blue jersey (he is moving to Western Province).
The Cheetahs deserve kudos for their indomitable spirit. They seem impervious to early setbacks and they proved it again yesterday when they were 24-0 down with little prospect of making a fist of it, let alone knocking the Bulls off their perch.
The Cheetahs, as they proved in their semifinal win over the Sharks, are at their best when the chase is on .
Du Preez’s pass to Habana looked forward, but it mattered little to the Loftus masses . |
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