Lions tame Bulls at Loftus
The Golden Lions are now the only unbeaten side in the Absa Currie Cup following their 36-28 victory over the Blue Bulls.
|||Pretoria - The Golden Lions are now the only unbeaten side in the Absa Currie Cup following their 36-28 victory over the Blue Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday.
The Bulls came into the match undefeated and looked to be heading towards a humiliating defeat, had it not been for a brilliant fight-back effort in the second half.
In a dream start, the Lions scored as early as the third minute when wing Courtnall Skosan was on the receiving end of a pinpoint cross-kick by Marnitz Boshoff.
The Lions blew the Blue Bulls off the park with two more tries before the break and on each occasion it was a case of the home side being unable to deal with the quick decision-making of their opponents.
First Franco Mostert barged over from close range before Ruan Combrinck took the easiest of intercepts to put his side well in control of proceedings at 28-0 in the 24th minute.
Boshoff also kicked two penalties and a drop-goal before the half-hour mark and it took something special from the Blue Bulls to keep their heads up.
Minutes before the break, wing Jamba Ulengo ensured that his team had something to show for their first-half defensive effort when he raced over after space was created out wide by fullback Warrick Gelant.
Trailing 30-7 the Blue Bulls tried their best to dictate proceedings during the opening stage of the second-half, but the Lions were as impressive in defence as they were from broken play prior to the break.
Eventually, Arno Botha converted from an attacking line-out after the men from Pretoria executed a rolling maul with pin-point precision.
Flyhalf Tian Schoeman added the extras and after 57-minutes the Bulls were edging back into the game (33-14). Blue Bulls substitute Deon Stegmann then added five more points that would make the dramatic finish a certainty.
Having shrugged off their poor first-half performance the Blue Bulls produced a passage of play that may have been their best of the season and in dramatic fashion Ulengo scored his second try in the 58th minute to make it 33-28 with 10-minutes remaining in the match.
Ulengo and Gelant wormed their way through the Lions' defence with some footwork that would have impressed most soccer coaches and at the end of the foot race the two Blue Bulls outside-backs fought each other off to score the try.
The Lions showed great composure in the closing stages of the match and relied heavily on men like Jaco Kriel to keep them on the front foot.
As has been the case for more than one season, the Lions scrum prevailed and from that platform they were able to weather a very intimidating Blue Bulls storm.
With three minutes remaining in the match, Boshoff made the game save with a well-struck penalty (36-28) in what turned out to be his team's only points of the one-sided half.
Despite their best efforts, the Blue Bulls knew that they had left it too late as they were unable to break an otherwise well-structured defensive line again.
Scorers: Blue Bulls 28 (7): Jamba Ulengo (2), Arno Botha, Deon Stegmann. Conversions: Tian Schoeman (4). Golden Lions 36 (33): Courtnall Skoskan, Franco Mostert, Ruan Combrinck. Penalties: Conversions: Marnitz Boshoff (3). Penalties: Boshoff (4). Drop Goal: Boshoff. - African News Agency (ANA)