This weekend re-iterated the huge devide between the TOP 6 and The Bottom 2 Teams in the Premier Division of the Curry Cup.

The Blue Bulls romped over the Leopards but did they really do so well ??

What follows hereafter is a summary of the match as described and detailed from within the Blue Bulls Camp… as liberally taken from their official website…

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“The Vodacom Blue Bulls scored six tries in their 44-11 victory over the Platinum Leopards at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.

The Leopards were first on the scoreboard thanks to a penalty by Cecil Dumond, the younger brother of the Shark’s Monty Dumond, but in the fifth minute disaster struck for the visitors when their star centre Deon van Rensburg had to leave the field on a stretcher after he collided with Stephan Dippenaar’s hip.

With Van Rensburg on the sideline Burton Francis got the Bulls’ scoring rolling when he slotted a penalty in the seventh minute and four minutes later he conned the visitors with a clever kick kick to sent Jaco Pretorius over for the first of the Bulls’ two first half tries.

Francis converted Pretorius’ try and even though the Leopards tried to play positive constructive rugby in the first quarter, the Bulls were too clinical and it wasn’t long before Deon Stegmann scored try number two.

The Bulls’ mauling was very impressive and the forwards did a good job in the set pieces but it was rather obvious in the latter parts of the first half that it was a “new” team and that meant they did not always gelled as well as Frans Ludeke and his coaching staff would have hoped for.

The Leopards’ positive approached paid off when they scored a stunning try from first phase in the 27th minute and with the score at 17-8 and after the opponents’ reserve flyhalf Clayton Durand added another penalty with the result that the Leopards were suddenly within a converted try from the Bulls.

Five minutes before halftime Akona Ndungane left the field with what seemed to be a broken leg and although the Bulls could not score any more tries in the first half Francis kicked a neat drop goal in the 37th minute to make the score 20-11 at the break.

Big Flip van der Merwe stretched the lead to 27-11 and with a little bit more than a half hour to play our blistering scrumhalf Francois Hougaard went over for the bonus point try.

By this time Ludeke had send on Derick Kuün, Wilhelm Steenkamp, Jacques Burger and Werner Kruger and with all the fresh legs on the park the Leopards could not manage to fill all the gaps and tries by Gerhard van den Heever and Dewald Potgieter followed.

Under the circumstances it was a great victory for the Blue Bulls and it was nice to see how well individuals like Francis, Dewald Potgieter and Zane Kirchner played but the injuries to Ndungane and Frik Kirsten combined with the visitors’ ill discipline in the latter parts of the second half definitely put a damper on night’s game.

Scorers:
Vodacom Blue Bulls: Tries: Jaco Pretorius, Deon Stegmann, Flip van der Merwe, Francois Hougaard, Gerhard van den Heever, Dewald Potgieter. Conversions: Burton Francis (4). Penalties: Francis. Drop goal: Francis.

Leopards: Try: Danie Dames. Penalties: Cecil Dumond (1), Clayton Durand (1).”

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Thank you Blue Bulls, for this Article… now over to what I think…

Personally I believe that the Blue Bulls were mediocre, considering who they were playing, and prior to the match I picked the Blue Bulls by 60 on the SuperBru Competition.

Not only did the Blue Bulls not score a 60 points winning margin, there were crucial injuries to Akona Ndungane and a couple of other Bulls players. Akona has a broken leg… and that against a Team who has no deserved place in the Premier Division of the Curry Cup.

Oh please, when can we concentrate ONLY on strenght vs strenght in the Curry Cup ?

Should we not have 7 Premier Division Teams, consisting of the TOP 6 PLUS maybe a Combined side made up from all the “Star” Players from the Bottom Dwellers and the Provincial Franchises who are not included in the Premier Division? Give them a good Coach and good Backup Team… and continue to play strenght vs strenght only !

Go ahead, shoot me to ribbons with my analysis and my plea as detailed above…. I dare you !