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Pretoria - The Blue Bulls turned in an electric second half performance to run out 36-12 winners in their Absa Currie Cup match in Pretoria on Friday evening.
While they were undone by Griquas’ burly pack of forwards in the first half, it was one of their own heavies that kick-started the home side's fightback in the second half.
Replacement prop Dayan van der Westhuizen was worth his weight in gold on debut when he scored in the 59th minute from a Marvin Orie turnover to spark the team back into action.
Until this point the Bulls were looking somewhat lethargic, but Orie turned the ball over and popped it to Van der Westhuizen who sprinted from the 10m line to dive over in the left-hand corner.
Griquas travelled to the Capital City with some heavy artillery in their forward pack that ultimately dominated the battle up front.
This denied the Bulls front-foot ball which kept their dangerous back trio out of the game and allowed the visitors the early advantage.
The Northern Cape side went into the half-time break with a 12-6 advantage courtesy of two tries.
However, once the tempo kicked up a gear, Griquas’ heavies battled to get across the field with the match swinging in the Bulls’ favour.
The Bulls took an early lead in the match thanks to a Tian Schoeman penalty six minutes into the encounter.
The home side looked good on attack up to this point until Griquas speedster Ruhan Nel intercepted a Schoeman pass meant for Travis Ismaiel.
Nel was quick out of the blocks and ran the length of the field to score the first try of the match in the 10th minute with Gouws Prinsloo missing the conversion.
The Bulls then came close to responding with a try of their own minutes later, but a Francois Hougaard pass to wing Jamba Ulengo was adjudged to have gone forward.
This took the wind out of the home sides’ sails with unforced errors not helping them in their cause.
Five minutes from the break Griquas’ fleet-footed Ntabeni Dukisa received a lopped pass from Riaan Viljoen to step, then duck under a tackle to score.
The Bulls were threatening in the opening minutes of the second half but it was only until Van der Westhuizen scored that they kicked into top gear.
The Bulls scored 30 unanswered points in the second stanza with Schoeman also adding a five-pointer to his personal tally of 21 points with four penalties and two conversions.
The bottle blonde pivot demonstrated some impressive stepping en route to his try which he also managed to convert.
Hougaard then added his third try in two matches when he picked up and scored five metres from the line for the third try of the evening.
Two
minutes from time wing Jamba Ulengo, who had an otherwise bad night at the
office riddled with handling errors, got his name on the scoresheet.
Scorers:
Bulls
Tries: Dayan van der Westhuizen, Francois Hougaard, Tian Schoeman, Jamba Ulengo
Conversions: Schoeman (2)
Penalties: Schoeman (4)
Griquas
Tries: Ntabeni Dukisa, Ruhan Nel
Conversion: Gouws Prinsloo
Teams:
Blue Bulls
15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 William Small-Smith, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Hanro Liebenberg, 7 Lappies Labuschagne (captain), 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Jacques du Plessis, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Dean Greyling
Substitutes: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Dayan van der Westhuizen, 18 RG Snyman, 19 Roelof Smit, 20 Ivan van Zyl, 21 Louis Fouche, 22 Dries Swanepoel
Griquas
15 Gouws Prinsloo, 14 Ruhan Nel, 13 Jonathan Francke, 12 Michael van der Spuy, 11 Ntabeni Dukisa, 10 Riaan Viljoen, 9 Tian Meyer (captain), 8 Carel Greeff, 7 Hilton Lobberts, 6 RJ Liebenberg, 5 Hugo Kloppers, 4 Jonathan Adendorf, 3 Stephan Kotzé, 2 AJ le Roux, 1 Danie Mienie
Substitutes: 16 Martin Bezuidenhout, 17 Kop van der Westhuizen, 18 Jaco Nepgen, 19 Leon Karemaker, 20 Poerie van Rooyen, 21 Clinton Swart, 22 Jacquin Jansen
