Vodacom Bulls Edge DHL Stormers

The Vodacom Bulls consolidated their third place on the Vodacom United Rugby Championship standings as they held out a determined DHL Stormers outfit in a dramatic encounter for a nail-biting 33-32 win in their postponed round one fixture at a packed DHL Stadium in Cape Town on Saturday.

Both teams produced gutsy performances in what was a thriller of a game from the outset – with the Vodacom Bulls holding a narrow 18-17 halftime lead – despite both sides having to do without a number of star players due to injury.

The victory for the men from Pretoria – their first in six attempts in the Vodacom URC in Cape Town – saw them remain in third-place position on the table, now with 35 points, trailing the second-placed Glasgow Warriors by two points and log-leaders Leinster by 13 points, with a game in hand.

The DHL Stormers will be bitterly disappointed by the defeat – especially as better goal kicking would have surely seen them secure a win after outscoring the visitors by five tries to four, three of which were scored in the second stanza – but there was some reprieve as they earned two bonus points, which allowed them to jump into 10th place on the standings with 23 points.

The Capetonians are now equal on log points with the ninth-placed Ulster and 11th placed Benetton, and only one point behind the eighth-placed Edinburgh, which means they are still well in the race for a playoff spot with eight pool matches remaining.

The North-South derby proved to be another tense and hard encounter between the two adversaries, where the scoreline remained close for a large part of the 80 minutes.

The Vodacom Bulls were particularly strong in the scrums, and they also looked good on attack as the backs and forwards combined well, but the DHL Stormers also showed great enterprise and intent on attack. This combined with tenacious defensive efforts at times saw both teams squander possible try-scoring opportunities.

It was a ding-dong battle from the start as the one team scored and the other responded, with Cobus Wiese and Jan-Hendrik Wessels scoring tries for the Vodacom Bulls in the first half to add to two penalty goals by David Kriel, while Frans Malherbe and Salmaan Moerat scored for the Capetonians to add to a penalty goal by Jurie Matthee.

The visitors struck first again in the second half with a try by Harold Vorster to extend their lead, but the DHL Stormers took full advantage of a yellow card to Gerhard Steenekamp in the 54th minute to score two tries in three minutes, by Evan Roos and Warrick Gelant.

Ruan Vermaak’s 70th minute try and another penalty goal by Kriel gave the visitors a six-point cushion towards the end, but the hosts refused to give up and made it a one-point game when Ben-Jason Dixon went over two minutes left to play.

Unfortunately for the home team, their kicking woes continued to haunt them as Clayton Blommetjies pushed the conversion attempt wide, and they were unable to add to their score – even with a one-man advantage in the final minute after Nizaam Carr received a yellow card for a high tackle in the lead-up to Dixon’s try.

Scorers:

• DHL Stormers 32 (17) – Tries: Frans Malherbe, Salmaan Moerat, Evan Roos, Warrick Gelant, Ben-Jason Dixon. Conversions: Jurie Matthee (2). Penalty goal: Matthee.
• Vodacom Bulls 33 (18) – Tries: Cobus Wiese, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Harold Vorster, Ruan Vermaak. Conversions: David Kriel (2). Penalty goals: Kriel (3).