The Emirates Lions and Vodacom Bulls showed their mettle in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship on Saturday with important home victories over their visitors from the coast, which bolstered their play-off hopes with seven league rounds remaining.
The Lions outplayed the Hollywoodbets Sharks 40-10 in Johannesburg in the first South African derby, while the Bulls finally swayed their fortunes against the DHL Stormers as they defeated the Capetonians 40-22 in Pretoria for their first win between the sides in eight matches, which set a new record for the biggest attendance in South Africa for a URC league match.
These results saw the Bulls leap to second place on the log (on 40 points) behind Leinster (who are on 44 points) and the Lions wrap off the round in 11th position (29 points) – trailing the eighth-placed Benetton by only three points.
The Stormers, meanwhile, dropped to ninth place on the standings on 30 points, while the Sharks remain at the foot of the log with only one win in 11 matches.
To compound matters for the Capetonians, they relinquished their spot at the top of the SA Shield standings to the Bulls, who are now three points ahead in the race to the local silverware.
The Lions showed their strong will to lunge from the bottom section of the URC log into contention for a quarter-final spot in the second half of the tournament with their first victory in three matches.
Such was the effectiveness of the Johannesburgers’ attack, they crossed the tryline six times while their tenacious defence limited to the Sharks to only one converted try and a penalty goal despite a committed effort by the visitors to attack strongly at key times.
Siya Masuku put the first points on the board for the KwaZulu-Natalians three minutes into the match with a penalty but this was short lived as the Lions strung together a brave attacking display which saw Sanele Nohamba, JC Pretorius and Quan Horn score tries to hand them an encouraging 19-3 lead.
The Sharks, however, fought back with a try later in the half Eduard Keyter and the successful conversion made it a nine-point game (19-10) in favour of the home side at half-time.
Inclement weather saw the restart delayed, and when play finally resumed, the Durbanites were dealt a blow in the third quarter as Bongi Mbonambi received a yellow card and soon after the floodgates opened for the Emirates Lions with the team adding three more tries in 11 minutes.
Conraad van Vuuren kick-started the three-try romp in the 64th minute, and Erich Cronje and Hanru Sirgel followed suit, while their defence held strong to deny the KwaZulu-Natalians from adding to their score for the morale boosting 40-22 victory.
The Bulls were in the right frame of mind from the outset against the Stormers in front of a packed Lotus Versfeld on Saturday, with the team getting off to a strong start before surviving a Stormers comeback and then breaking away in an impressive second half for a comfortable victory.
The win not only saw the team jump into second place on the log, it also brought an abrupt halt to their losing run against the Capetonians which saw them suffer defeats in the last seven matches between the sides. The victory also maintained their flawless run at home this season.
The Pretoria side came out guns blazing with Johan Grobbelaar scoring their first try in the second minute. The Bulls took advantage of the visitors’ ill-discipline with Johan Goosen adding three penalties to inflate their lead.
Ben Loader earned the first points for the visitors in the 16th minute thanks to fantastic teamwork and inter-passing and they added their second try seven minutes from half-time compliments of Evan Roos from a rolling maul while the Bulls were down a man after Stedman Gans was sent to the sinbin for a deliberate knock-down.
Rugby World Cup-winning Springbok flyhalf Manie Libbok reduced the Cape side’s deficit to 19-15 going into the break thanks to a handy penalty.
The Stormers showed good attacking prowess early in the second half but struggled to convert their chances into points and a yellow card – this time to Warrick Gelant for a dangerous tackle – didn’t help their cause.
The Bulls scored two tries in seven minutes compliments of Grobbelaar – who earned his brace – and Springbok speedster Canan Moodie, which nudged their score to 33 points.
The visitors refused to give up and earned their third try as Andre-Hugo Venter crashed over from a rolling maul in the 62nd minute and although they created further chances subsequently, they could not round them off.
The home side, in turn, made the most of their opportunities and it was Embrose Papier who touched down in the dying minutes for the last time in a fitting end to a rewarding performance for 40-22 victory.
Comments