The Blue Bulls hosted the Vodacom Free State Cheetahs in round 2 of the Currie Cup. The Bulls won 30 / 27 in a nail-biter.

The official web site of the Bulls summarises the match as follows:

A workmanlike performance by the Vodacom Blue Bulls saw them beating the courageous Vodacom Free State Cheetahs 30-27 at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday afternoon.

Captain Victor Matfield said during the week that he expects the Blue Bulls to take two or three games to ‘settle in’ after ten players have been involved in the Vodacom Tri-Nations, but they started off pretty well and after 13 minutes the Bulls have built up a neat 10-0 lead thanks to a Gerhard van den Heever try and five points coming from the boot of Morne Steyn.

Shortly after Van den Heever’s try Dewald Potgieter, who was again at his rampant best, charged down a kick to dive over for the Bulls’ second and with the score at 17-3 the Bulls were dominating all aspects of the game.

With Matfield and big Danie Rossouw back in the mix the Bulls had no problems in the lineouts and the set scrums were fairly evenly contested throughout the first 40 minutes although neither of the teams could stamp down their authority at tighthead (but on this point it has to be noted that there isn’t a tighthead in world rugby that consistently dominates the right hand side of the scrum because you scrum in effect against two opponents).

The Bulls’ fetching duo of Potgieter and Deon Stegmann had a titanic battle with Heinrich Brussow and Ashley Johnson in the loose and with Steyn continuing where he left off in the Super 14 the Bulls’ scoreboard were constantly ticking.

Steyn kicked three penalties and converted both tries in the first half to take the Bulls into a 23-10 lead at the break after the Cheetahs’ Fabian Juries scored a brilliant individualistic try shortly before halftime.

As underdogs playing away from home the Cheetahs had absolutely nothing to lose and could therefore afford play high risk rugby and this eventually paid off in the 44th minute when Juries’ partner on the wing Lionel Mapoe scored another five pointer.

With the score at 23-17 the Bulls realized they were in for a game and being one of the world’s most professional outfits they immediately shifted to a higher gear and it wasn’t long before Wynand Olivier cut through the visitors’ midfield for try number three.

Olivier scored a minute after Johnson (Free State’s number 8) had to leave the field following a yellow card for a professional foul, but with Johnson on the sideline the Cheetahs showed that they are NOT going to be pushovers as they succeeded in quickly scoring ten points of their own as a result of another try by Juries and five points via Potgieter’s boot.

During the last 15 minutes the Bulls were clinging to their 30-27 lead and although they could not score the fourth try they did enough at the end to see off the desperate Cheetahs.

Points:

Blue Bulls: 3 Penalties & 2 Conversions Morne Steyn, Try Gerhard van den Heever & Dewalt Potgieter & Wynand Olivier

Cheetahs: 2 Penalties & 3 Conversions Jacques-Louis Potgieter, Try Fabian Juries (2) & Lionel Mapoe

Sat Sep 26 2009 at 17:05 (local time)
Venue: Loftus Versveld, Pretoria, South Africa
Altitude: 1330m / Capacity: 52 000

Teams:

Blue Bulls: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 Jaco Pretorius, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 François Hougaard, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Heini Adams, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Dewald Potgieter, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Danie Rossouw, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Derick Kuün, 1 Gürthro Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 Ross Geldenhuys, 18 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 19 Pedrie Wannenburg, 20 Dean Greyling, 21 François Brummer, 22 John Mametsa.

Free State: 15 Hennie Daniller, 14 Lionel Mapoe, 13 Corné Uys, 12 Meyer Bosman, 11 Fabian Juries, 10 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 9 JP Joubert, 8 Ashley Johnson, 7 Frans Viljoen, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 David de Villiers, 4 Nico Breedt, 3 Western Province Nel, 2 Adriaan Strauss (captain), 1 Wian du Preez.
Replacements: 16 Richardt Strauss, 17 Coenie Oosthuizen, 18 Izak van der Westhuizen, 19 Hendro Scholtz, 20 Tewis de Bruyn, 21 Louis Strydom, 22 JW Jonker.

Referee: Ian Smith (Australia)
Assistant referees: Dilbert November, Cobus Wessels
TMO: Johann Meuwesen