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Bulls hold off gutsy Kings

Pretoria - The Blue Bulls won their first match of this year's Currie Cup with a four-try bonus-point victory of 30-25 (half-time 11-8) over the Eastern Province Kings at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday afternoon.


The victory will merely paper over the serious cracks that are clearly visible after the Kings came close to claiming an upset over the more esteemed opposition.

The visitors truly accounted for themselves as they bounced back from two consecutive defeats, including a crushing 60-19 loss to the Golden Lions last weekend.

The Bulls, however, would welcome the reprieve after conceding 82 points in their opening two matches.

Although the hosts butchered a few chances, it was the coastal side that produced a number of enterprising attacks.

The Bulls opened the scoring six minutes into the encounter when flyhalf Tony Jantjies converted a penalty after making a promising assault on the line.

A minute later the Kings made their intentions clear as they crossed the whitewash from a counter-attack with wing Shane Gates finishing off a move that saw a couple of players handling the ball.

In the 15th minute Bulls captain Deon Stegmann scored his side's first five-pointer of the match from a demolishing driving maul of over 20 metres.

Just under the half-hour mark, Jantjies extended the Bulls' lead by three points with a successful penalty conversion but the Kings' Scott van Breda replied with one of his own in the 37th minute to send the teams to the changerooms with the hosts leading 11-8.

After the break, the Kings took the lead for the first time in the match when, against the flow of play, prop Lizo Gqoboka broke from a ruck inside the Bulls' 22 to score, with Van Breda slotting the conversion.

The Bulls suffered a further blow when Jantjies was shown a yellow card, which assisted the Kings in defending their lead until the 55th minute.

A minute after Kings' replacement hooker Michael van Vuuren was also given his marching orders, the Bulls got their groove back as stalwart wing Akona Ndungane finished in the corner, with fullback Jesse Kriel hooking the conversion kick.

Ndungane again showed his class four minutes later, scoring on the other side of the field for his side's third try of the match.

The hosts started to find easier access over the advantage line while the altitude seemed to have an effect on the Kings.

The Bulls put more daylight between the Kings and themselves when Kriel showed some great spacial awareness as he drifted outside before spotting a gap. He accelerated to find the tryline for his side's bonus-point try.

The Kings bounced back immediately from the kickoff when Van Vuuren pounced on a spilled Bulls ball to score in the 64th minute, with Van Breda converting to cut the deficit to five points. However, they could not manage to get back into the danger zone to score what would have been a famous victory.

In next week's action, the Bulls host Western Province in Pretoria, while the Kings entertain the Lions on Port Elizabeth.

Scorers:

Blue Bulls:

Tries: Deon Stegmann, Akona Ndungane (2), and Jesse Kriel.
Conversions: Tony Jantjies (2)
Penalties: Jantjies (2)

EP Kings:

Tries: Shane Gates, Lizo Gqoboka and Mike Van Vuuren.
Conversions: Scott van Breda (2)
Penalties: Van Breda (2)

Teams:

Blue Bulls:

15 Jesse Kriel, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 William Small Smith, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Sampie Mastriet, 10 Tony Jantjies, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Jono Ross, 7 Jacques Du Plessis, 6 Deon Stegmann (captain), 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 Paul Willemse, 3 Marcel van Der Merwe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi
1 Dean Greyling

Substitutes: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Werner Kruger, 18 Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, 19 Wiaan Liebenburg, 20 Piet van Zyl, 21 Joshua Stander, 22 Ulrich Beyers

EP Kings:

15 Scott van Breda, 14 Ronnie Cooke, 13 Tim Whitehead, 12 Shane Gates, Siviwe Soyizwapi, Gary van Aswegen, 9 Kevin Luiters, 8 Luke Watson (captain), 7 Paul Schoeman,6  Stefan Willemse, 5 Steven Sykes, 4 Darron Nell, 3 Tom Botha, 2 Edgar Marutlulle, 1 Lizo Gqoboka

Substitutes: 16 Mike van Vuuren, 17 Charles Marais, 18 Steven Cummins, 19 Thembelani Bholi, 20 Jaco Grobler, 21 George Whitehead, 22 Siyanda Grey

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