Province shock Bulls at Loftus

Western Province pulled off the almost unthinkable when they upstaged the Blue Bulls, winning 15-10 in their Round Three Currie Cup match at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday. It was Province's first win over the Bulls in three years and their first win at Loftus since 15 September 2001.

Celebration time for WP stars Bolla Conradie and Egon Sevonds

It is a day for celebrations in Cape Town, for a team that showed more energy, greater hunger for success and certainly far more enterprise.

And leading the way was captain Luke Watson, who produced a performance that showed exactly what a fool Springbok coach Jake White is for not drafting him into the national team.

The Bulls may feel aggrieved over certain refereeing decisions, especially at scrum time - where referee Willie Roos seemed to have no clue as to what was happening at the set pieces.

The referee also seemed to breach protocol by giving instructions to the TMO (Jaco Peyper) during a call for one of the Province tries - probably trying to avoid another embarrassing situation of having a try disallowed when it was clearly a try (remember Linston Manuels).

Roos, having seen the replays on the big screen then repeatedly told Peyper that "the ball only needs to touch the grass".

But it was not because of the referee that the Bulls lost.

A lack of discipline - they had two players yellow carded early in the second half and played with 13 men for almost nine minutes - and some very poor decision making saw their hard earned ball go to waste.

And more important, WP deserved the victory because they came to Loftus to play rugby. That was especially true in the first half when they literally ran the sluggish-looking Bulls off their feet.

The two Province tries, both scored in the first half, had the hallmark of class - a clear indication that this young WP squad is maturing at a rapid rate.

Western Province played an impressive and near clinical game of high-speed rugby in the first half.

With the back three of Gio Aplon, Joe Pietersen and Egon Seconds running around as if in an unopposed training session, the Bulls defenders were often grasping at thin air.

The first try, by Seconds in the 12th minute, came as a result of this expansive approach by Province. Not only were they far better at recycling the ball, they also showed great hands in creating space out wide for Seconds.

But full credit must also go the Watson and his fellow forwards, who showed far more urgency at the breakdown and often made the Bulls' much heavier forwards look ponderous and unskilled. Too often Province turned over ball when the Bulls were trying to take it forward.

The second WP try, by Pietersen in the 37th minute, was another classic example of how the fleet-footed Province backs exploited space when all the Bulls wanted to do was brainlessly bash into opponents.

It came from a counter started deep inside WP territory and when Pietersen went over in the corner the 15-3 scoreline had an air of inevitability about it ... this was going to be the visitors' day.

Last week the Bulls looked like possible Currie Cup champions, when they convincingly beat the Lions at Ellis Park, but this Saturday they were a completely different outfit.

The Bulls lacked any thrust among the forwards and that resulted in them losing their way by conceding valuable possession on the ground. The Bulls played a directionless and error riddled game.

It was midway through the first half that the first signs of an imminent Bulls defeat surfaced.

First John Mametsa committed a sin by dropping a simple pass, with the Bulls on the charge towards the Western Province tryline. Then the comedy of errors occurred as the Bulls delayed their throw-ins at the line-out and were penalized for doing so.

For the better part of the second half, Western Province contained the Bulls but their defence eventually leaked in the 78th
minute when Stefan Basson scored a consolation try.

There was a change of guard at the Bulls this week, with Pote Human taking over from Heyneke Meyer as coach. But if this is an indication of things to come, it will be a long time before the Bulls win another trophy.

The scorers:

For the Blue Bulls:
Try: Basson
Con: Steyn
Pen: Steyn

For Western Province:
Tries: Seconds, Pietersen
Con: Olivier
Pen: Olivier

Yellow cards: Frikkie Welsh (Blue Bulls, 46), Heini Adams (Blue Bulls, 47)

Teams:

Vodacom Blue Bulls: 15 Stefan Basson, 14 John Mametsa, 13 JP Nel, 12 Frikkie Welsh (captain), 11 Marius Delport, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Heini Adams, 8 Pedrie Wannenburg, 7 Tim Dlulane, 6 Warren Brosnihan, 5 Francois van Schouwenburg, 4 Adriaan Fondse, 3 Rayno Gerber, 2 Gary Botha, 1 Wessel Roux.
Replacements: 16 Kobus van der Walt, 17 Jaco Engels, 18 Hottie Louw, 19 Hilton Lobberts, 20 Neil Powell, 21 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 22 Riaan van der Bergh

Vodacom Western Province: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 Joe Pietersen, 13 Corne Uys, 12 Peter Grant, 11 Egon Seconds, 10 Naas Olivier, 9 Bolla Conradie, 8 Robbie Diack, 7 Justin Melck, 6 Luke Watson (captain), 5 Gerrie Britz, 4 Francois van der Merwe, 3 Brock Harris, 2 Schalk Brits, 1 JD Moller.
Replacements: 16 Huia Edmonds, 17 Schalk Ferreira, 18 Rob Linde, 19 Pieter Louw, 20 Paul Delport, 21 Sarel Potgieter, 22 Chumani Booi

Referee: Willie Roos (Golden Lions)
Touch judges: Stuart Berry (KwaZulu Natal), Chris Healey (KwaZulu Natal)
Television match official: Jaco Peyper (Free State)
Assessor: Keith Hendricks (Boland)