DHL Western Province boosted their home play-off hopes in the 2015 Absa Currie Cup competition with a well-executed 29-14 win over the Vodacom Blue Bulls at DHL Newlands on Friday night.
Played in front of a lively crowd of 22,653 at Cape Town’s home of rugby, the Men in Blue & White hoops more than made up for their loss to the selfsame Bulls in Pretoria in late August.
Not only did the DHL Western Province senior side beat the Bulls today, in what was their fifth victory of the season, but their win came on top of the DHL WP U19 side’s 53-20 win over the Bulls’ U19s and the Province U21s’ 48-22 win over the Bulls’ U21 team.
Whilst the senior team’s win was not quite the try-fests of earlier, as Province’s junior sides scored a whopping 14 tries between them, it was a well-executed and convincing victory which, also, crucially denied the Bulls a losing bonus point.
First-half tries from backs Dillyn Leyds and Huw Jones (the latter’s first at this level in his second start) saw DHL WP lead by 12-0 after 11 minutes, as the hosts went into half-time leading by 15-9 – three Bulls penalties being the visitors’ only means of reply.
DHL Western Province kept the pressure on in the second half, as Robert du Preez turned that pressure into points through his boot, with the Bulls eventually scoring a late fortuitous try by right-wing Travis Ismaiel.
A 77th minute Jano Vermaak try put the game out of the Bulls’ reach, however, as the hosts gave it all in the final two minutes for what would have been a more than handy four-try bonus point.
It was not to be in the end, but the hosts certainly made up for their loss last time out against the Bulls and moved to within one point of the Bulls on the overall Absa Currie Cup standings with just three league games remaining this season.
DHL WP will host the Pumas at DHL Newlands next Saturday (kick-off 15h00).
The scorers:
For DHL Western Province:
Tries: Leyds, Jones, Vermaak
Con: Du Preez
Pens: Du Preez 4
For the Vodacom Blue Bulls:
Try: Ismaiel
Pens: Fouché 3
The teams:
DHL Western Province: 15 Cheslin Kolbe, 14 Dillyn Leyds, 13 Johnny Kotze, 12 Huw Jones, 11 Seabelo Senatla, 10 Robert du Preez, 9 Nic Groom (captain), 8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 7 Jurie van Vuuren, 6 Chris Cloete, 5 Ruan Botha, 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Oli Kebble, 18 Chris van Zyl, 19 Nizaam Carr, 20 Jano Vermaak, 21 Demetri Catrakilis, 22 Kobus van Wyk.
Blue Bulls: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Travis Ismaiel, 13 Dries Swanepoel, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Louis Fouché, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Lappies Labuschagne (captain), 7 Roelof Smit, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Jacques du Plessis, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Bandise Maku, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Werner Kruger, 18 RG Snyman, 19 Arno Botha, 20 Ivan van Zyl, 21 Tian Schoeman, 22 Jan Serfontein.
Referee: Rasta Rasivhenge
Assistant referees: Quinton Immelman, Lourens van der Merwe
TMO: Marius Jonker
