The Vodacom Bulls kicked off their Absa Currie Cup campaign in good fashion by beating GWK Griquas 35-20 at Loftus Versfeld on Friday.
The After Match Press Conferences was recorded by our man on the spot, Rudi Geldenhuys, aka grootblousmile… and here they are:
Blue Bulls Press Conference:
GWK Griquas Press Conference:
(Snippits of these interviews will be aired on radio throughout South Africa, by the NewsPod Media Group)
A dominant second-half performance saw the Blue Bulls surge past Griquas..
The Blue Bulls dominated possession and territory throughout but at half-time Griquas led 13-9, despite having eccentric Willie le Roux in the sin bin. Le Roux was the high and the low of the half.
The score was 3-all after François Brummer had goaled a penalty when Deon Stegmann was offside, Jürgen Visser, pretending to be French, had missed two drops and a penalty, and Louis Fouché had then goaled a penalty.
After several phases Griquas attacked down the left. Le Roux skipped and drew two onto him to give Rocco Jansen an overlap. Jansen passed back inside to Le Roux who gave Jansen a perfect return pass for the wing to go round to score. (10-3 after 11 minutes).
The Blue Bulls did well with a long, fast maul and Martin Muller was offside. (10-6 after 17 minutes).
Soon afterwards Le Roux did, almost with method, a tip tackle on Visser and was sent to the sin bin. He was probably fortunate that it was only for 10 minutes. While he was away, his bereft team-mates flew into tackles, and Fouché goaled a third penalty when Justin Downey was penalised. (10-9 after 26 minutes).
Jacques Coetzee, the light of the Griquas side, had a wonderful break off an up-and-under and then Brummer took a low pass from Jonathan Adendorff and in one movement dropped a goal that just sneaked over the crossbar, as the TMO confirmed. (13-9).
It took Griquas 20 minutes to add to their score while the Blue Bulls found profit in a more adventurous approach.
From a line-out on the Blue Bulls right, Arno Botha charged past Downey and charged on for the line. He gave a perfect pass to Akona Ndungane on his left and the elegant wing scored under the posts. The Blue Bulls led 16-13 after 43 minutes.
Just after this hooker Willie Wepener had the first of three telling breaks. He was certainly the most incisive player on the field. He gave to Frik Kirsten but the prop was caught from behind.
Fouché kicked two more penalties and the Blue Bulls were out to a 22-13 lead after 53 minutes with another Wepener break between the penalties, but hope was soon with the Griquas when lock Martin Muller surged over from close quarters.( 22-20 after 60 minutes).
Stephan Watermeyer was penalised at a tackle and Fouché goaled and then for the third time Wepener cut through the Griquas. He gave to Stegmann who gave to scrumhalf Ruan Snyman who ran the 20 metres unchallenged to score at the posts.
The scorers:
Vodacom Blue Bulls 35 (9). Tries: Akona Ndungane, Ruan Snyman. Conversions: Louis Fouchè (2). Penalties: Fouchè (7).
Griquas 20 (13). Tries: Rocco Jansen, Martin Muller. Conversions: Francois Brummer (2). Penalty: Brummer. Drop goal: Brummer
All in all I think that the Blue Bulls controlled the game, even in the 1st half when they were trailing on the scoreboard.
They were the more industrious side, whereas the Griquas dicipline let them down.
Pote Human, Griquas coach, basically conceded as much during the After Match Press Conference.
Old Pote, quite a likable chap off the field, was in fine form just before and during the presser, even pretended to take my new Samsung S3 Smart Phone, which I used to record the interviews. The okes are always so approachable and that makes our rugby experience so much more enjoyable.