Hurricanes edge Bulls in arm-wrestle
The Hurricanes hung tough in a gruelling final 10 minutes to edge the Bulls 17-13 at Loftus Versfeld, in Pretoria, on Friday.
Of course, the Bulls could have won this match, but to do that they needed to score more points than the Hurricanes. To score more points they needed to do certain things better - like handling, scrumming, line-outing, tackling and their post-tackle activities. This team does not look like being the lineal descendants of Northern Transvaal, certainly not the victorious Bulls of earlier this century, not even the Bulls of 2013 and, as it seems quite possible, the ordinary Bulls of 2014. In fact these Bulls could emulate the feeble performances of the Bulls of 1998-2002. It is not a pleasing situation for a union proud of its rugby and it is no wonder that there are so many empty seats at Loftus Versfeld.
That they ended in contact as close as they did suggests that the Hurricanes, despite two victories in South Africa, may be in for a tough time. Their handling was poor at times and they created little on attack except for the period immediately before Julian Savea's try.
The Hurricanes handled better than the Bulls did and won turnovers that the Bulls didn't. They also had the better of the scrum count (11-5), the penalty count (13-7) and the line-out count (15-10). But they relied on Beauden Barrett's boot and a bit of Savea power to win. That and the way Grant Hattingh tried to score a try - ball in the wrong arm and unable to get the ball down in the allotted space even though the only desperate defender was Beauden Barrett who is not a great defender.
There were good Bulls performances from Jesse Kriel and Handré Pollard amongst the backs and Trevor Nyakane and Adrian Strauss amongst the forwards. But it's hard to play with slow scrumhalves who cannibalise space. The Bulls' brilliant try and near-score by Hattingh happened when the Bulls were able to play quickly.
Pollard kicked off on a pleasant Pretoria evening on the edge of autumn and the Bulls went through phases till the Hurricanes won a turnover. Kriel counterattacked, Pollard broke and again the Hurricanes won a turnover. Then the Hurricanes got more and more into the game, able to forge ahead in the gentle Bulls' tackling. Too often the Bulls stood upright in the tackle, not able to drive the ball-carrier back.
Deon Stegmann was penalised at a tackle and then Pierre Spies was penalised at a tackle and on each occasion Barrett goaled to give the Hurricanes a 6-0 lead after 18 minutes.
When Ma'a Nonu and Blade Thomson went off side just inside the Bulls half, Pollard goaled the long kick. 6-3 after 28 minutes.
Then came the best moment of the dull match. Barrett kicked off deep towards his left. Jesse Kriel caught the ball not far from his line and started running with all the energy and confidence of youth. He bumped off Ben Franks and beat Barrett till nearly 40 metres later TJ Perenara hauled him down. But the Bulls kept the ball going, bashing from right to left and back again till they were on the line when Piet van Zyl passed to Pollard who forced his way between Callum Gibbons and Conrad Smith to score near the posts. He converted and the Bulls led 10-6.
The Hurricanes scrum was putting pressure on the Bulls and when Morné Mellett was penalised just before half-time, Barrett made it 10-9 at the break.
Pollard kicked a penalty at goal from 58 metres out and hit the upright high up but when Nyakane was penalised at a tackle, Barrett goaled and the Hurricanes led 12-10, but their lead lasted only five minutes for James Broadhurst was penalised for playing Victor Matfield in the air at a line-out and Pollard put his side ahead 13-12 after 51 minutes.
Perenara kicked a long crossfield touch well into Bulls' territory and the Hurricanes won the Bulls' line-out, as they did three times in the match. The Hurricanes bashed and went wide left where Bjorn Basson stopped Savea and play went right as the referee played advantage because Basson had been offside. The referee went back to the penalty and the Hurricanes hastily got the ball to Savea who bent, tapped and charged forward low to stretch and score despite the efforts of Matfield, Basson and Van Zyl to stop him. 17-13 to the Hurricanes with 13 minutes left.
With four minutes to play the Bulls attacked, advancing with quick ball before going wide left with replacement lock Grant Hattingh on the overlap. The big man went for the left corner with the ball under his right arm and his left hand put in front of him close to touch-in-goal. The referee consulted the TMO whose advice was that the fingers of Hattingh' left hand had touched touch-in-goal at the same time as he grounded the ball - which led to a drop-out instead of the winning try.
The Hurricanes played out time with a series of one-pass phases and Perenara kicked out to end the match.
Man of the Match: There was the ardent work of Julian Savea who scored the important try and the zealous work of Brad Shields and James Broadhurst but our choice is young Jesse Kriel, a pupil at Maritzburg College a short while ago, who made his starting debut in Super Rugby in this match, and we chose him for his adventure, speed and vision. He was the brightest spark on the field.
The scorers:
For the Bulls:
Try: Pollard
Con: Pollard
Pens: Pollard 2
For the Hurricanes:
Try: J Savea
Pens: Barrett 4
Teams:
Bulls: 15 Jesse Kriel, 14 Bjorn Basson, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Francois Hougaard, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Piet van Zyl, 8 Pierre Spies (captain), 7 Pieter Labuschagne, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Jacques du Plessis, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Morné Mellett.
Replacements: 16 Callie Visagie, 17 Dean Greyling, 18 Dayan van der Westhuizen, 19 Grant Hattingh, 20 Hanro Liebenberg, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Jacques-Louis Potgieter, 23 Jurgen Visser.
Hurricanes: 15 Jason Woodward, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Julian Savea, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Blade Thomson, 7 Callum Gibbins, 6 Brad Shields, 5 James Broadhurst, 4 Mark Abbott, 3 Ben Franks, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Reggie Goodes.
Replacements: 16 Brayden Mitchell, 17 Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, 18 Chris Eves, 19 Ardie Savea, 20 Victor Vito, 21 Chris Smylie, 22 James Marshall, 23 Matt Proctor.
Referee: Andrew Lees (Australia)
Assistant referees: Rohan Hoffmann (Australia), Jaco van Heerden (South Africa)
TMO: Johan Greeff (South Africa)
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