Tian Schoeman came off the bench to kick a drop-goal and seal a 17-13 victory for the Northern Bulls over the Western Stormers on Saturday in a bruising Super Rugby battle.
Drop-goals are a rarity in the competition and the one the blond substitute flyhalf slotted five minutes from time stretched a one-point lead to four at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.
It left Stormers needing a try or six points from the boot to win the showdown and they never came close to achieving either goal.
Photo: AFP
The success enabled the Bulls to creep above the Stormers in the Africa 1 conference standings. Each team has 32 points, but the Pretoria franchise have won one game more.
The two Africa conferences have developed into a four-team struggle for three quarter-finals places, with the Golden Lions, the Bulls and the Coastal Sharks ahead of the Stormers.
“This was a must-win match for us and the defensive effort over 80 minutes was magnificent,” Bulls skipper and hooker Adriaan Strauss said. “There is no limit to what the Bulls can achieve when they play for each other and the Loftus crowd gets behind us like they did tonight.”
While flanker Jannes Kirsten was a deserved official man of the match, Strauss hailed prop Marcel van der Merwe.
“Marcel was outstanding at scrum time and made several huge hits to halt the Stormers,” the Springbok said.
“We were our own worst enemies at times, giving away far too many penalties,” Stormers skipper and prop Frans Malherbe said. “The Bulls stole several of our lineout throws and they were phenomenal on defense, so one must give credit to them.”
In Durban, former Springboks coach Nick Mallett called the Southern Kings a “C division” team after they suffered a humiliating 53-0 loss at the Coastal Sharks.
“It was an A division team against a C division team,” the SuperSport TV analyst said after the South Africa derby produced one of the dullest, lopsided matches in the competition this season.
“This was a massacre — it looks very ugly,” added the coach, who guided South Africa to third place at the 1999 Rugby World Cup.
“We repeatedly saw the Kings attack, win three phases, lose possession and concede points,” he added.
Mallett has previously said that only four of the six South African franchises are genuine Super Rugby teams, inferring the Central Cheetahs and the Kings are below the necessary standard.
Thirteen rounds into the expanded 18-franchise competition there is talk among the organizers of changes for the 2018 season.
One suggestion is an expanded two-tier competition and anyone wanting to push that viewpoint need only acquire a video of the mismatch at Kings Park Stadium.
In Johannesburg, a strong second-half showing enabled the Golden Lions to trounce the Jaguares 52-24, despite missing seven of 12 kicks.
The inaccuracy of flyhalf Elton Jantjies (three misses) and winger Ruan Combrinck (four misses) did not harm the South African side because they scored eight tries.
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