The Currie Cup was shared for the fourth time in its history when the Cheetahs and the Blue Bulls played to a 28-28 draw at Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein on Saturday evening.
Both sides earned the boasting rights for one more season after playing 100 minutes of rugby when they deadlocked at 25-25 after 80 minutes.
The Bulls threatened when Morne Steyn struck a penalty in the 84th minute to give them a 28-25 lead. Cheetahs’ flyhalf Meyer Bosman could have pulled his team level
but his long-range penalty hit the upright leaving the home side trailing at the half-time of extra-time.
Free State started the match at an extremely high tempo as they took a 6-0 lead by the 19th minute through two penalties from Willem de Waal. The Bulls struck back through a Derick Hougaard penalty in the 21st minute.
The Cheetahs continued their high-speed attack and De Waal struck another penalty before Phillip Burger scored a long distance try from the kick-off after Kabamba Floors sidestepped and offloaded to Richardt Strauss who found Burger in the 29th minute.
The Bulls tried to mount a comeback but an out-of-sorts Hougaard missed a sitter in front of the poles. The ray of hope for the Bulls came two minutes before the
half-time interval when they capitalised on a shaky Cheetahs defence resulting in a JP Nel try.
The Bulls trailed the Cheetahs by 14-8 at half-time.
In the second half the Bulls started off on the back foot with Johan Roets receiving a yellow card for obstruction before Hougaard was carted off the field with an injury in the 44th minute.
A minute later the Bulls stole the lead for the first time in the match when Marius Delport latched onto a Morne Steyn chip to score. Steyn then converted. But the Cheetahs regained their lead in the 51st minute when De Waal slotted his fourth penalty.
As Roets made his way back onto the field, the Bulls were struck yet another blow when Dries Scholtz was also sent to the sin bin in the 52nd minute for a late tackle on De Waal.
The Bulls took the lead for the second time in the match when Steyn struck a penalty to give his team a slender 18-17 lead.
The lead was yet again swapped in the 57th minute when man-of-the-match Floors ran unhindered on the blind side before side-stepping Roets and scoring to give the Cheetahs a 22-18 lead.
De Waal struck his fifth penalty to extend the Cheetahs lead to seven points before JP Nel scored his second try with two minutes remaining to send the encounter into extra-time. – Sapa