Bulls battle past Crusaders
The Bulls guaranteed themselves a home Super 14 semi-final with a 40-35 win over the Crusaders at Loftus Versfeld.
Last Updated: 07/05/10 8:55pm
The Bulls guaranteed themselves a home Super 14 semi-final with a last-gasp 40-35 win over the Crusaders at Loftus Versveld.
The visitors competed all the way, scoring four tries and grabbing two bonus points to stick a huge spanner in the works of semi-final qualification.
Defeat was tough on the Crusaders who played more of the rugby and scored more tries but just could not find a way to neutralise the boot of Morne Steyn.
Ben Franks conceded an early penalty by lifting Danie Roussouw - playing his 100th match - and dumping him to the ground.
Penalty reversed
Referee Marius Jonker promptly reversed the penalty against the Bulls on his assistant's - and 40,000 Bulls fans' - advice and Morne Steyn opened the scoring with a 50m penalty.
That didn't staunch the visitors' aggression and they launched several meaningful wide attacks early on.
From turnover ball it went wide to a pod of forwards on the right, with Ti'i Paulo stepping Roussouw and fending off Victor Matfield before offloading to Brad Thorn for a magnificent try which. Dan Carter converted from the touchline.
Steyn booted over a second penalty with ease from 50m out after the Crusaders infringed at a scrum after 15 minutes.
The Crusaders replied in the same way they had Steyn's first penalty though. After a busting run by Thorn, Carter - whose form has been subject of scrutiny the past fortnight - broke clear before sending a deftly-weighted inside pass to Andy Ellis for the second try under the posts.
Roussouw had already headlocked Ellis a few minutes before and at the restart he once again swung a ludicrous arm at Kieran Read, seeing yellow for his efforts.
The only Bull not feeling the pressure was Steyn, who launched a long-range 50m drop goal, making sure his side were getting points any time they got over the halfway line.
Sean Maitland was denied a third Crusaders try by a brilliant tackle as the visitors once again swept forward, but on 27 minutes he made no mistake, after Zac Guildford had created the extra man in the line and the overlap for Maitland to canter to the corner.
But again, the Bulls landed a sucker punch. Turnover ball from Franks was sent out to Francois Hougaard and the youngster sped home for a score.
Steyn missed the conversion and a penalty, but landed three more points before the break as the Crusaders were pinged at a scrum - an occurrence that was a feature of the first half.
The Bulls managed a try of their own when Gary Botha then Roussouw slipped tackles before the latter offloaded to Matfield for the run home.
The second half started a little less frantically, but with no let-up in the action. The Crusaders landed the first blow, with Paulo stretching to dot down under the posts. Carter converted to give his side the lead at 26-24.
The entry of Bakkies Botha for the final 25 minutes was greeted with such hysteria that referee Jonker probably gave the Bulls a penalty just to calm everyone down. He said it was for an infringement by Richie McCaw at a line-out, Steyn landing it to make the score 27-26 in favour of the home side.
Influential McCaw
Back came the Crusaders, with McCaw's influence growing and growing. Carter dropped a goal - nothing like giving the home side a taste of their own medicine - to give the Crusaders the lead back.
It nearly went straight back to the Bulls, as Gerhard van den Heever powered over the line but Guildford did magnificently to get his body under the ball. Moments later, Steyn did give the Bulls the lead back, making it 30-29.
With seven minutes to go, the Bulls were once again down to 14 men, with Gerhard van den Heever sent to the bin for a tip tackle. Carter landed the pressure penalty from a difficult angle.
Steyn launched a majestic drop goal to give the Bulls the lead back at 33-32 - only for Carter to land the game's longest kick, under the most intense pressure, to put the Crusaders' noses in front.
The Bulls may have thought their chance had gone when Steyn missed another drop goal. However Hougaard scurried over for his second try of the night and the game-winning score.
