MONDAY, 11.30AM:
THE Northern Bulls, after a pedestrian start to this year’s Super-12 competition, belied their bottom-of-the-table status to humble New South Wales 34-19 at the Jan van Riebeeck Stadium in Witbank on Saturday.
The Bulls outplayed the Waratahs in the tight, driving strongly and supporting closely at the breakdown. By no means a pretty tactic, but successful nonetheless — so successful in fact, that coach Eugene van Wyk would do well to stick with this new “conservative” approach.
The Bulls led 17-9 at the break after an early try in the first half, and good kicking from centre Franco Smith. The game was marred, however, by the yellow card given to notoriously ill-disciplined Bulls lock forward Wium Basson.
Basson, who will almost certainly be left at home when his team travels to Australasia, was sin-binned in the second half for punching. Basson was, however, sent a clear message by coach Van Wyk, when he was replaced by Derick Grobbelaar and not allowed to continue.
The Golden Cats continued their miserable form against the Australian Capital Territories Brumbies by losing 37-3 in Canberra on Saturday.
The Cats, dubbed the “Pussycats” after their feeble Super-12 thus far, could do nothing right against the Aussies. Even without stars like Joe Roff and Stephen Larkham the Cats were outplayed by the Brumbies in every department.
The Wellington Hurricanes, joint log leaders, were beaten by the Queensland Reds 41-33, a week before they face the Coastal Sharks in Palmerston North.
Virtually unknown replacement inside centre Shane Drahm singlehandedly destroyed the Hurricanes, running in two tries within 25 minutes.
The Auckland Blues once again scraped to victory with the narrowest margin to beat the Chiefs by 25-23 in Auckland on Saturday.