Nineteen-year-old Blue Bulls flyhalf Derick Hougaard kicked a record 26 points in his first Currie Cup final to spur his team to a shock but deserved 31-7 win at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon.
The record points tally by an individual in a final was 24 held jointly by Naas Botha (1987 v Transvaal) and Braam van Straaten (2001 v Natal).
The victory margin of 24 points is also the second biggest win in the history of the competition. Hougaard’s points came via five penalties, two drop goals and a try, but the foundation for the win came courtesy of the Bulls pack who were relentless all afternoon. The Bulls led 15-0 at halftime.
Vos, playing in his last match on South African soil, led his team on to the field to a massive roar, but departed before the end a defeated man. Nonetheless he leaves South Africa to ply his trade in England with his head held high.
He also went off early for a cut above his eye. The former Springbok captain was only off for a couple of minutes, but in that time Bulls flyhalf Derick Hougaard kicked the visitors into the lead with the first of his four penalties in the half.
He doubled that minutes later with a superbly taken drop goal, while his forwards were giving the Lions pack a lesson in driving play.
The home team looked shaky in the opening 10 minutes against the ferocious Bulls onslaught and while they gradually came to terms with the pace of the game as the half wore on they never really had an answer to the Bulls game plan in the first 40 minutes.
Despite defending like Trojans they found themselves nine points behind on 15 minutes after the deadly accurate Hougaard slotted his second penalty.
The Bulls dominated the territory and possession in the first quarter, launching attacking forays deep into Lions territory. But it must be said that although the home team were stretched they were equal to the task.
The closest the Bulls got to a try in the first half was in the 17th minute, but heroic defending by the Lions saw them gain turnover ball and Vos of all people launched a 60 metre clearance kick.
Young Lions fullback Jacque Fourie then pulled off a brave tackle on big Bulls lock Bakkies Botha when a try seemed a distinct possibility.
However, the Bulls raids were frequent and powerful — with locks Botha and Victor Matfield prominent — and the desperate Lions defence was forced into errors within striking distance for the Bulls prodigy.
He calmly slotted a further two penalties to give the Bulls a 15 point cushion at the break, leaving the Lions with a mountain to climb.
As well as the Bulls pivot was playing it was the opposite for Springbok incumbent Andre Pretorius whose tactical kicking was atrocious by his standards. Admittedly Houghaard was getting far better service from his forwards than the Lions man.
Pretorius made amends, however, when he sliced through the Bulls defence for the first try of the match — after excellent work by centre Jorrie Muller — a minute after the restart. When he added the conversion the gap had closed to eight points.
The Lions were like a completely different team at the start of the second stanza and now it was the Bulls turn to look shaky. Unfortunately for the Lions that did not last long.
First a piece of brilliance from Hougaard gave the Lions the throw-in at a lineout — five metres from their tryline — then scrumhalf Bennie Nortje threw a horrible pass that gave his flyhalf no chance and led to Bulls flank Pedrie Wannenburg getting over for a try in the corner.
With their tails up the Bulls upped the ante and started dominating as they had done in the first half and when Hougaard capped a man-of-the-match performance with a try and another drop goal the Lions had too much to do in too little time.
Pointscorers: Lions 7 (0): Tries: Andre Pretorius.
Conversions: Pretorius (1).
Penalties: Drops: Blue Bulls 31 (15): Tries: Pedrie Wannenburg and Derick Hougaard.
Conversions: Penalties: Derick Hougaard (5).
Drops: Hougaard (2).
Teams: Lions: Jacque Fourie, John Daniels, Grant Esterhuizen, Jorrie Muller, Jaco Booysen, Andre Pretorius, Bennie Nortje; Russel Winter, Andre Vos (captain), Wikus van Heerden, Jannes Labuschagne, Kleinjan Tromp, Willie Meyer, Delarey du Preez, Lawrence Sephaka.
Reserves: James van der Walt, Pietman van Niekerk, Willem Stoltz, Joe van Niekerk, Deon de Kock, Louis Koen, Jaco Pretorius.
Blue Bulls: Jaco van der Westhuyzen, Wylie Human, Dries Scholtz, Tiaan Joubert, Gavin Passens, Derick Hougaard, Joost van der Westhuizen (captain); Anton Leonard, Johan Wasserman, Pedrie Wannenberg, Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha, Richard Bands, Danie Coetzee, Wessel Roux.
Reserves: Gary Botha, Sias Wagner, Geo Gronje, Ruan Vermeulen, Norman Jordaan, JP Nel, Johan Roets.
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (Sarfu).
Touch judges: Andre Watson and Mark Lawrence (both Sarfu) Television match official: Steve Strydom. – Sapa