Cape Town – When you score six tries in a bonus-point victory and are still not quite happy with the performance, then you know you are going in the right direction.
And after the Bulls were knocked out of the URC by the Stormers in the quarter-finals, they needed an immediate pick-me-up, and that arrived in Kimberley on Saturday as they dispatched Griquas 40-20 to keep their Currie Cup semi-final hopes alive.
While they didn’t move up the log from seventh position, they are now on 22 points – just one behind Griquas – and have an opportunity to knock out one of their rivals for a semi-final berth in the Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday (5.05pm kickoff).
The Johannesburg side remained in the last-four race themselves by upsetting log leaders the Cheetahs 33-26 in Bloemfontein at the weekend.
But Bulls director of rugby Jake White made his intentions clear that he wants to win the Currie Cup by picking his strongest possible side against Griquas, and the move paid off.
Despite a spirited display from the home side, the Bulls forwards won the collisions and scored four out of the six tries – two to hooker Johan Grobbelaar, and one apiece to No 8 Elrigh Louw and prop Simphiwe Matanzima – but they were far from perfect.
“We came here with one mission, and that was to pick up five points. We knew it’s going to be a tough outing and tough afternoon – Griquas playing at home is always tough. So, from that perspective, we’re very satisfied with the result,” Bulls assistant coach Hugo van As said afterwards.
“I think we struggled at the breakdown in the first half, and Griquas did very well to slow our ball down to disrupt us at the breakdown. We had a couple of missed opportunities in the first half, where we felt we could have been better and executed better. So ja, the message at halftime was to go through them.
“We are very thankful for the win, and that was precisely what our goal was: to come here and (win). We knew it was going to be difficult, and in the first half, we played against a reasonably strong wind, and I thought Embrose (Papier) and Chris Smith controlled the game really well.
“But I still felt that we didn’t use a number of opportunities in their 22 especially, where we could have put more pressure on them earlier. But I acknowledge what it means to come to Kimberley, and that it’s always challenging and never easy.”
But with four games left, the Bulls can reach a maximum of 42 log points, and with the Cheetahs on top with 38 already, the Pretoria side have to keep on winning to make the semi-finals, starting with the Lions in Johannesburg.
“Our aim is to take it one game at a time and to see where we stand at the end of the competition. There are so many things that can still happen and so many teams – in fact, everyone from one to seven – are still in the race to play in the semi-finals,” Van As said.
“Jake made it clear that we must take it one game at a time, and we won’t look further than that. The Lions also beat the Cheetahs, so there’s a lot to play for and it makes the competition so unique in that seven teams still stand a chance.
“Next week, we’ve got the Lions at Ellis Park, which will be another challenge as they are also starting to get a bit of momentum.
“So, next week will be huge for both teams, but we can only do what’s in our control, and we will take it one game at a time and try to pick up five points at Ellis Park and see what happens after that.”
Points-Scorers
Griquas 20 – Tries: Johan Mulder, Jay-Cee Nel, Stephan Smit. Conversion: Lubabalo Dobela (1). Penalty: Dobela (1).
Blue Bulls 40 – Tries: Embrose Papier, Johan Grobbelaar (2), Elrigh Louw, Marco Jansen van Vuren, Simphiwe Matanzima. Conversions: Chris Smith (5).
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