The Blue Bulls scraped through 22-20 against a motivated Valke at Loftus on Friday night.
The Bulls probably deserved to win, despite being unable to score for the last 28 minutes of the match in which time the score never changed.
The Bulls missed tackles and neglected the basics, Nevertheless, they remain second on the log to qualify for a semifinal, while the Valke, with their bonus point, move to second to last.
For the Bulls, there were one or two nice stepping runs by flyhalf Burton Francis — one of which lead to debutante Stephan Dippenaar’s try.
The Valke simply were not in the game before halftime, except on the scoreboard.
Despite a minor problem in the lineouts where the Valke’s Nico Luus competed well and where Chiliboy Ralepelle didn’t always find his target, the Bulls’ possession and territorial advantage was overwhelming.
Rocco Jansen did well with a fine kick into the in-goal area for Zane Kirchner to eventually touch down, and at 12-6 the Bulls were in control.
A Francis penalty just after the restart saw the Bulls pull away to 15-6. Then Kirchner, with players lining up next to him, inexplicably chipped forward into the hands of Poerie van Rooyen, the Valke’s only defender. He ran all the way to score under the posts (15-13).
Sensing an upset, the Valke turned up the heat. The Bulls responded with a brilliant try by Jaco Engels. Four minutes later the Valke pulled back through Franco Booysen (22-20) with Johan Jackson prominent in the build-up.
That’s how it remained with very little except the scoreboard to excite the small crowd. – Sapa