The Vodacom Bulls held onto their leadership of a ferociously contested South African Conference on a weekend of success at the expense of Australian teams.

The Vodacom Bulls maintained their 2-point advantage over the DHL Stormers on the Log – as both recorded bonus point victories over the Reds (43 / 22) and Waratahs (32 / 18) respectively – while the Toyota Cheetahs showed enormous character to finish their tour on a high in Perth, with a win over the Western Force (24 / 15).

In the South African derby at Emirates Airlines Park, the Emirates Lions underlined the seriousness of their challenge for the Conference title with 2-point victory (23 / 21) over a significantly improved Cell C Sharks, who missed a long-range last-kick penalty, which could have snatched the victory.

The upshot of the weekend was that the Top 4 SA teams are separated by just 4 Log Points – in contrast to their fellow conferences where the Hurricanes top the standings as New Zealand’s Top 4 are spread by 11 points, while an even more clear-cut Australian race sees the Brumbies head a Log in which 17 points cover the Top 4 Australian contenders.

3 Of SA’s winners had to overcome halftime deficits to record victories, with the most notable being those of the DHL Stormers and Toyota Cheetahs who achieved it on Australian soil.

However, the margins were small – both trailed by 2 points – while the Emirates Lions turned round 3 points adrift of the Cell C Sharks, as all 3 teams showed fitness and character to ‘win’ the 2nd half.

In the other match, the Vodacom Bulls’ recent home success over the Reds continued, as they stomped to a 6-try victory, with Francois Hougaard scoring 2 tries from the wing to take his tally to 4 for the season and therefore joining Marcell Coetzee as the leading South African try scorers.

Emirates Lions (11) 23 / 21 (14) Cell C Sharks:

A 37 000 strong Emirates Airlines Park audience was not disappointed as the home team put a dismal record against the Cell C Sharks behind them in an edge-of-the-seat victory.

Tries by Faf de Klerk and Harold Vorster shortly after the break gave the Emirates Lions the lead in the 47th minute and they held on to record only their 2nd victory over the Cell C Sharks in their the past 12 meetings.

Replacement prop Thomas du Toit scored the Cell C Sharks 3rd try, with 2 minutes remaining to close the gap to just 2 points, setting up a frantic closing period.

The visitors were in possession when the siren sounded and were awarded a long range penalty, as the Emirates Lions infringed in their desperate attempts to close out the game.

Cell C Sharks flyhalf, Fred Zeilinga, was left with a difficult kick – some 15m in from the right-hand touchline and just inside the Lions’ half. His strike was good but his accuracy marginally amiss and the ball sailed away to the left of the uprights.

The Lions have now won 5 of their last 6 matches, all by margins of fewer than 5 points.

They had been held tryless by the Cell C Sharks in their previous 2 meetings, but on this occasion scored their 3 tries in a frenetic 8 minute period either side of halftime.

Scorers:

Emirates Lions:

• Tries: Faf de Klerk (1), Harold Vorster (1), Howard Mnisi (1)
• Conversions: Elton Jantjies (1)
• Penalties: Elton Jantjies (2)

Cell C Sharks:

• Tries: Lwazi Mvovo (1), Renaldo Bothma (1), Thomas du Toit (1)
• Conversions: Fred Zeilinga (3)

Vodacom Blue Bulls (24) 43 / 22 (5) Reds:

The Reds have now lost their last 6 matches in Pretoria, including their heaviest Vodacom Super Rugby loss ever (92 / 3 in 2007), and as the Bulls raced out to a 24 / 5 lead at halftime another one-sided rout appeared on the cards.

2 Quick tries in the 1st 10 minutes of the new half – by Will Genia and Nick Frisby – closed the gap to a more modest 7 points (24 / 17), forcing the Bulls to work hard to re-establish their dominance.

And hard work was the watchword of this performance for the home side as they used aggressive defence – their 140 tackles was more than double that of the Reds – as an attacking weapon, forcing turnovers and mistakes, to run in 6 tries (their best of the season) and score their 2nd try-scoring bonus point of the campaign. The win maintained the Vodacom Bulls’ 2 Point lead at the top of the SA Conference Log, now over the DHL Stormers who leapfrogged the Cell C Sharks into 2nd position, with the Vodacom Bulls due to meet both teams in the next fortnight in seismic derbies.

Fullback Jess Kriel was named Man Of The Match for an outstanding counter-attacking performance – brushing through or evading tackles to carry the ball for 194m – and create 1 of 2 tries for Francois Hougaard, from 60 of these metres in 1 run.

Hougaard was not far behind with 153 metres – 50 of those of from a piece of grand larceny, stripping the ball out of the arms of prop James Slipper and collecting the bouncing ball to gallop down the right hand touchline.

Scorers:

Vodacom Blue Bulls:

• Tries: Francois Hougaard (2), Burger Odendaal (1), Marcel van der Merwe (1), Pierre Spies (1), Piet van Zyl (1)
• Conversions: Jacques-Louis Potgieter (3), Tian Schoeman (2)
• Penalties: Jacques-Louis Potgieter (1)

Reds:

• Tries: Lachie Turner (1), Marco Kotze (1), Nick Frisby (1), Will Genia (1)
• Conversions: Lachie Turner (1)

Western Force (10) 15 / 24 (8) Toyota Cheetahs:

The Toyota Cheetahs showed a never-say die attitude to end their 4-match tour on a high note, with a victory built on hard-working defence.

The Toyota Cheetahs made 173 tackles to just 62 and although they missed a number (20), their determination and scrambling defence effectively tackled the Force to a standstill.

The home side dominated possession and led at halftime but the Cheetahs were not to be denied their 2nd successive win in Perth.

For the 7th time in 9 meetings between the teams, the match was decided by fewer than 10 points and for the 7th time in those matches it was another low scorer, with fewer than 40 points scored by the teams.

The Force may have thought they had taken a winning lead when their 2nd try, shortly after the break, took them out to a 15 / 8 lead against a team playing the last 40 minutes of a long and disappointing tour.

But the Toyota Cheetahs had different ideas and they clawed their way back into the match with a penalty and drop goal from flyhalf Joe Pietersen, before the relentless Heinrich Brüssow finished off a rolling maul to give the visitors the lead with 13 minutes remaining.

Another Pietersen penalty with 3 minutes to play closed out the game for the Toyota Cheetahs against a Force team that had been tackled into confusion.

Scorers:

Western Force:

• Tries: Chris Alcock, Luke Morahan
• Conversions: Luke Burton
• Penalties: Luke Burton (1)

Toyota Cheetahs:

• Tries: Heinrich Brüssow (1), Raymond Rhule (1)
• Conversions: Joe Pietersen (1)
• Penalties: Joe Pietersen (3)
• Drop Goal: Joe Pietersen (1)

Waratahs (15) 18 / 32 (13) DHL Stormers:

The DHL Stormers inflicted only the 2nd defeat in 13 home matches on the champion Waratahs, scoring their 1st try-scoring bonus point of the season on the way, to kick their tour to life in some style.

The DHL Stormers’ victory was all the more notable as they reversed recent history with a 14-point winning margin against a team that had averaged 18-point victories in that winning run at home.

The DHL Stormers had a simply storming 2nd half, outscoring the home side 19 / 3, as their alertness in defence and deftness in counter-attack confounded a Waratahs team at a loss to find a way through, round or over the Cape Town team’s defence.

The victory was studded with sparkling long-range tries with all of Cheslin Kolbe, Kobus van Wyk and Damian de Allende finishing off attacks launched from their own half – Van Wyk’s a daring piece of enterprise from the DHL Stormers’ own 22.

Juan de Jongh’s fingertip intercept set up De Allende’s score while Kolbe picked up a loose ball midway in his own half to jink and jive his way to the try-line. Both were reward for the DHL Stormers’ smothering defence.

Van Wyk’s try 7 minutes into the 2nd half gave the DHL Stormers the lead but a Bernard Foley penalty ensured it a was a 2-point ball game going into the final quarter.

However it was in that period that the work that the DHL Stormers had done in the 1st hour came to fruition, as their defence created the opportunities for their backs to exploit.

Scorers:

Waratahs:

• Tries: Teqele Naiyaravoro (1), Rob Horne (1)
• Conversions: Bernard Foley (1)
• Penalties: Bernard Foley (2)

DHL Western Province:

• Tries: Damian de Allende (2), Cheslin Kolbe (1), Kobus van Wyk (1)
• Conversions: Kurt Coleman (2), Demetri Catrakilis (1)
• Penalties: Demertri Catrakilis (2)

Other results – Round 9:

Blues 16 / 14 Brumbies
Crusaders 20 / 25 Highlanders