With nothing but pride and a place in Jake White’s Springbok squad to play for, the Bulls beat The Cats 62-52 in a thrilling, action-packed 80 minutes of running rugby in their Vodacom Super 12 clash at Loftus on Saturday afternoon.
In all, 16 tries were scored — nine to the Bulls and seven to the Cats — as the players threw caution to the wind to entertain the 23,000-strong crowd in the final round of the competition.
The hero for the Bulls was scrumhalf Fourie du Preez who did his Bok ambitions no harm with a hat-trick of tries allied to a superb all round performance.
Cats lock Gerrie Britz also scored three tries and had some outstanding runs, but is unlikely to get into White’s 22-man squad. Du Preez was named man-of-the-match.
The aggregate score of 114 points fell one short of the Super 12 record that is held by the Crusaders and Waratahs two seasons ago, when the Crusaders won 96-19.
The opening exchanges were scrappy from both sides and turnover ball was the order of the day, before proceedings settled down a little after about five minutes of error-strewn play.
The remainder of the 80 minutes was nirvana for any running rugby enthusiast as the teams chucked the ball around with abandon in a match of little actual consequence.
And it was the Cats who were first one the board when impressive lock Gerrie Britz made use of good interplay between hooker Hanyani Shimange and left wing Jorrie Muller on the far touchline to dot down.
But that lead did not last long as Bulls scrumhalf Fourie du Preez scored two converted tries in the space of five minutes to wrest the momentum back to the home team by the 12th minute.
And things rapidly went from bad to worse for the visitors when they had centre Jacque Fourie sin-binned in the 20th minute for a professional foul five metres from his own tryline.
While Fourie contemplated his misdemeanour on the sideline, the Bulls ran in three wonderfully crafted tries as they began to exhibit some the skills that were supposed to have taken them to a semi-final spot this season.
Two came from left wing Odwa Ndungane after flowing backline moves, while du Preez notched his third in typical Joost van der Westhuizen manner — a sniping break from the base of a collapsed ruck.
That score took the tally to 31-14 in the favour of the men in blue after just more than half an hour of breathtaking rugby. Earlier, Britz had latched onto a loose ball inside the Bulls 22 to bring up his brace and also his team’s second.
The Bulls in fact did not have it all their own way and the Cats always looked dangerous with ball in hand and had the last say of the stanza when Juan Smith dived over in the corner to go into the break 21-38 behind.
Both teams treated the appreciative crowd to a feast of running rugby in the first half and did not let up after the restart as it continued to rain tries at both ends.
The Bulls’ Frikkie Welsh made use of an excellent break by centre partner Ettienne Botha to increase the lead four minutes into the second period, before their neighbours from across the Jukskei staged a stunning comeback.
Down by 24 points in the 44th minute, the bottom-of-the-log team scored three five-pointers to pull within three points (45-48) with 15 minutes left on the clock.
The teams then traded tries as the final whistle loomed, but in the end Bulls skipper Victor Matfield brushed aside several weak tackles close in to put the result beyond doubt in the 78th minute.
Point-scorers: BULLS 62 (38): Tries: Fourie du Preez (3), Odwa Ndungane (2), Pedrie Wannenburg, Frikkie Welsh, Eddie Fredericks, Victor Matfield. Conversions: Willem de Waal (7). Penalties: De Waal (1). CATS 52 (21): Tries: Gerrie Britz (3), Juan Smith, Os du Randt, Jorrie Muller (2). Conversions: Nel Fourie (7). Penalties: Fourie (1).
– Sapa