The Bulls took on Griquas in round 2 of the Currie Cup this afternoon at Loftus. The Bulls won comfortably, 61 / 27 but the Griquas earned a bonus point for tries.

We found a good match summary courtecy of the official Bulls web site:

The Vodacom Blue Bulls have qualified for the play offs of the Absa Currie Cup thanks to an excellent 61-27 victory over the GWK Griquas at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday afternoon.

The raging Bulls showed their intent to run riot from the first second and before the spectators could even find their seats the home side was leading 5-0 thanks to some superb backline play combined with a great individual effort by fullback Zane Kirchner.

Kirchner scored after he gathered his own chip kick, but two minutes later the visitors’ scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius opened their account with a splendid try of his own after he capitalized from a quick tap penalty on the five metre line.

In the twelve minute blindside flank Devon Raubenheimer doubled the Griquas’ score with another try and at this stage of the match, with the visitors leading 10-7, all was not well with the Bulls’ scrum and lineout play.

Things turned the way of the Bulls in the 23rd minute when the captain of the Griquas, Jonathan Mokuena, received a yellow card for a professional foul committed at a ruck.

With Mokuena watching the game from the sideline it wasn’t long before Danie Rossouw, who was playing his heart out, scored the Bulls’ second and twelve minute before half time Morne Steyn was over in the left hand corner owing to marvelous interplay between Derick Kuun, Dewald Potgieter, Bryan Habana and Wynand Olivier.

Steyn’s try has taken the team’s tally to 21 points and with the Bulls firing on all cylinders, the Bok flyhalf added two more penalties in the latter parts of the first half to take Frans Ludeke’s men into a well-earned 27-13 lead at the break.

Pierre Spies secured the Bulls’ bonus point in the 45th minute and with Rohan Kitshoff conceding a yellow card a few minutes later Victor Matfield and his troops gathered 14 more points via tries by Bryan Habana and Steyn to make the score 49-20.

The Bulls, who will in all probability end up in third place on the log, played some outstanding rugby in the last 40 minutes and it was nice to see that Ludeke gave all his substitutes game time.

Rossouw de Klerk and Bandise Maku did well when they replaced Werner Kruger and Kuun and Francois Brummer showed that he has all the potential to do what Steyn did in 2009.

In the last couple of minutes tries by Maku and another from Habana followed and apart from the eight super tries, the best thing about today’s victory was that the Bulls picked up the necessary momentum for the last four weeks of the Currie Cup.

Points:

Bulls: 5 Conversions & 3 Penalties Morne Steyn, 1 Conversion Francois Brummer, Tries Zane Kirchner & Danie Rossouw & Morne Steyn (2) & Pierre Spies & Bryan Habana (2) & Bandise Maku

Griquas: 1 Penalty & 2 Conversions Naas Olivier, Tries Sarel Pretorius & Davon Raubenheimer, Barry Geel & Naas Olivier

Teams:

Blue Bulls: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Francois Hougaard, 13 Jaco Pretorius, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Bryan Habana, 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 Gurthrö Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Rossouw de Klerk, 18 Flip van der Merwe, 19 Pedrie Wannenburg, 20 Francois Brummer, 21 John Mametsa, 22 Gerhard van den Heever.

Griquas: 15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Bjorn Basson, 13 Jaco Bekker, 12 Barry Geel, 11 Trompie Nontshinga, 10 Naas Olivier, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Jonathan Mokuena (captain), 7 Davon Raubenheimer, 6 Rohan Kitshoff, 5 Jacques Lombaard, 4 Cecil Kemp, 3 Ruaan du Preez, 2 Ryno Barnes, 1 Albertus Buckle.
Replacements: 16 Dries Kruger, 17 Andre Schlechter, 18 Brendon Snyman, 19 Sean Plaatjies, 20 Donald Stevens, 21 Wilmaure Louw, 22 Gavin Passens.     

Referee: Craig Joubert
Assistant referees: Lourens van der Merwe, Stefan Breytenbach
TMO: Michael Cupido