The Western Province took on the Blue Bulls at Newlands in Cape Town at 17:05, local time today in the return match in the Currie Cup. Wp won the match by dominating the Blue Bulls in the scrums, specially at loose head, where Wicus Blaauw dominated the Buls tight head, Werer Kruger. Wp won 25 / 19.

Fullback Joe Pietersen scored 20 points as Vodacom Western Province fought their way to a 25 / 19 (halftime 12 / 16) ABSA Currie Cup win over the Blue Bulls at Newlands on Saturday.

Victory lifted WP to 32 points on the standings, but they dropped to second place behind the Sharks on points’ difference. Still, beating the Bulls was all that counted and after falling behind 13 / 3 after 21 minutes it was a gutsy performance that cemented their credentials as potential Cup winners.

The WP tight five again dominated the tight exchanges, and the home team’s solitary try was a direct result of that unit’s power in the scrum when they destroyed the Bulls pack, allowing No 8 Luke Watson to score off the back in the 60th minute.

For the Bulls flyhalf Burton Francis contributed 14 points from four penalties and a conversion with centre Jaco Pretorius scoring their one try.

The first half was a torrid, physical affair with the Bulls starting the match with the kind of desperation you’d expect from a side that lost the week before.

The visitors forced a turnover from the kick-off after smothering WP lock Chris Jack as he claimed the ball. Although the big All Black had possession he was driven back and the Bulls were awarded a scrum.

From that set piece they camped inside WP territory and eventually the multi-phase possession took its toll with the home side forced to illegally slow the ball at the ruck. From the penalty Francis slotted the first of his penalties.

The Bulls maintained the pressure over the next 20 minutes and earned another easy penalty in the ninth minute that Francis duly slotted.

The only try of the half followed in the 21st minute when Pretorius slipped over in the corner after a build-up that went through five phases and ended with a clever over-the-top pass by centre Stefan Watermeyer to Pretorius.

But that signalled the beginning of WP’s total dominance as they rallied from the set back. For the remainder of the half they pounded the Bulls line repeatedly but couldn’t force a way through the organised and, at times, cynical defence.

Pietersen slotted penalties in the 25th, 27th and 40th minutes to add to his 19th minute penalty to keep the home side in the game while Francis added another Bulls penalty on the half hour.

In the second half Pietersen popped over two more penalties in the 46th and 55th minutes as the territory stats moved over 70% in favour of the home side. In the face of such unrelenting pressure the Bulls were forced into errors and blatant cynical play to stem the flow of ball in the direction of their line.

The match was still in the balance until Watson crashed over, which was just reward for the dominance that WP enjoyed and from that moment the Bulls were a beaten side. They managed a penalty after the finals whistle to secure a bonus point, but a home semi-final is now a long way off.

Scorers:

Bulls: 4 Penalties Burton Francis & 1 conversion, try by Jaco Pretorius

WP: 6 penalies Joe Petersen & 1 conversion, try by Luke Watson

Teams:

Western Province: 15 Joe Pietersen, 14 Tonderai Chavhanga, 13 Juan De Jongh, 12 Morgan Newman, 11 Gio Aplon, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Dewaldt Duvenhage, 8 Luke Watson (captain), 7 Duane Vermeulen, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Anton van Zyl, 4 Chris Jack, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Deon Fourie, 1 Wicus Blaauw.
Replacements: 16 Hanyani Shimange, 17 JD Moller, 18 De Kock Steenkamp, 19 Pieter Louw, 20 Conrad Hoffmann, 21 Frikkie Welsh, 22 JJ Engelbrecht.

Blue Bulls: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 Jaco Pretorius, 12 Stefan Watermeyer, 11 Francois Hougaard, 10 Burton Francis, 9 Heini Adams, 8 Dewald Potgieter, 7 Pedrie Wannenburg, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Wilhelm Steenkamp, 4 Flip van der Merwe, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Derick Kuün (captain), 1 Jaco Engels.
Replacements: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Rossouw de Klerk, 18 Fudge Mabeta, 19 Jacques Burger, 20 Dean Greyling, 21 Francois Brummer, 22 Tiger Mangweni.

Referee: Pro Legoete
Assistant referees: Tiaan Jonker, Peter Allen (Scotland)
TMO: Shaun Veldsman