Bulls scrape home against plucky Falcons

The Blue Bulls, beaten finalists in 2005, were lucky to scrape home 18-16 against a plucky Falcons outfit in their First Round Currie Cup match at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night. The Bulls held a commanding 18-6 lead at the break, but failed to score any points in the second half as the Falcons stormed back into the game.

It was a spiteful encounter in which referee Craig Joubert yellow carded two players - one from each team.

He flashed the first card in the opening minute, when burly Bulls centre JP Nel was sent to the cooler for a high tackle.

Falcons fly-half Louis Strydom drilled home the penalty, but it was quickly cancelled out by two similar attempts from Bulls No.10 Morné Steyn.

The Bulls then took advantage of the dominance their pack gave them and started to take control of the game.

They drove their way to the Falcons line, before sending it wide for Nel to score from the overlap.

They then capitalised on the yellow card given to Falcons lock Dewald Senekal for punching, when Springbok Sevens winger
Stefan Basson went over after he jinked back inside to score in the left hand corner.

Strydom got another penalty back to send the teams at 18-6 to the half-time break.

In the second half the Bulls' discipline let them down badly and they were heavily penalised, while the Falcons' "spoiling" tactics rattled the home side - who made a plethora of mistakes.

Strydom edged them closer with another penalty in the 59th minute and then wing Riaan Viljoen snatched a shocker of a pass from the Bulls fly-half, Steyn, to run 50 metres for an intercept try. Strydom added the conversion and with about 15 minutes remaining only two points (18-16) separated the teams.

Both sides tried desperately to score in the chilly night air thereafter, but it was simply a game that was best forgotten and
never could be considered anything close to a spectacle.
 
The scorers:

For the Blue Bulls:
Tries: Nel, Basson
Con: Steyn
Pens: Steyn 2

For the Falcons:
Try: Viljoen
Con: Strydom
Pens: Strydom 3

Yellow cards: JP Nel (Blue Bulls, 1), Dewald Senekal (Falcons, 26)

Teams:

Vodacom Blue Bulls: 15 Stefan Basson, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 Frikkie Welsh (captain), 12 JP Nel, 11 Danwel Demas, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Heini Adams, 8 Emile Verster, 7 Tim Dlulane, 6 Derick Kuün, 5 Francois van Schouwenburg, 4 Adriaan Fondse, 3 Rayno Gerber, 2 Kobus van der Walt, 1 Wessel Roux.
Replacements: 16 Harry Vermaas, 17 Jaco Engels, 18 Cliffie Milton, 19 Warren Brosnihan, 20 Neil Powell, 21 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 22 Riaan van der Bergh.

Falcons: 15 Jan Cloete, 14 Brendan April, 13 Sam Willard, 12 Hanno Coetzee, 11 Riaan Viljoen, 10 Louis Strydom, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Dries van Schalkwyk, 7 Jacques Nieuwenhuis, 6 Piet Krause (captain), 5 Nico Luus, 4 Dewald Senekal, 3 Attie Pienaar, 2 Deon Strydom, 1 Zane Killian.
Replacements: 16 Piet Grobler, 17 Gavin Whittingham, 18 Ryan Strudwick, 19 Michael Vermaak, 20 Sean Plaatjies, 21 Morné Adams, 22 Pieter Spaumer.

Referee: Craig Joubert (KwaZulu Natal)
Touch judges: Phillip Bosch (Eastern Province), Gareth Lloyd-Jones (Western Province)