It was a weekend of firsts in South African Vodacom Super Rugby history, with bragging rights in two derbies going to the Lions and the Toyota Cheetahs, while the Cell C Sharks cemented their position at the top of the standings.
On Friday evening, the Toyota Cheetahs turned around an 11-match losing streak against the Vodacom Bulls for their first-ever win over the team from Pretoria in this competition. It wasn’t pretty and the conditions were dire, but the side from Central South Africa would not have been too bothered by that as they won 15-9.
Saturday afternoon saw the Cell C Sharks dismantle a spirited Hurricanes side by 27-9 in Durban, after which the Lions were responsible for yet another upset when they trashed the DHL Stormers by 34-10 in Johannesburg – their first win over the Capetonians in 10 attempts.
sarugby
Lions flyhalf Marnitz Boshoff was his team’s hero with a personal haul of 29 points, meaning he has already reached 50 points this season after he got 21 last week against the Toyota Cheetahs.
His three drop-goals against the DHL Stormers also meant Boshoff joined a special group of only three players who have achieved this feat previously – Morné Steyn scored four for the Vodacom Bulls against the Crusaders in 2009, while Louis Koen (Vodacom Bulls v Cats in 2003) and Andrew Mehrtens (Crusaders v Highlanders in 1998) both slotted three drops each.
Boshoff’s efforts in the last two weekends is one of the fastest season fifties in the history of the game in SA, but it will take some doing to better the record held by Gavin Lawless, who scored 50 points in the opening match for the Sharks against the Highlanders in 1997.
Toyota Cheetahs (12) 15 / 9 (3) Vodacom Bulls:
The Toyota Cheetahs won the kicking contest in atrocious weather for rugby when they recorded their first-ever win over the Vodacom Bulls in eight years of Vodacom Super Rugby.
The score of 15-9 tells a story of a match where no tries were scored and all the points came via the boot. It was the first time the Toyota Cheetahs could not breach the Vodacom Bulls’ line, and vice versa.
The heavy downpour in Bloemfontein obviously didn’t help, but both sides struggled to get their game going in a match which will probably not be remembered for too long.
In the end, the Toyota Cheetahs probably played the conditions better, with fullback Willie le Roux underlining the massive improvement he’s shown in his tactical play by keeping his team in the right areas of the field with a number of superb kicks upfield.
The Toyota Cheetahs were also very good on defence and won a number of turnovers from the three-time champions, who struggled to get going on a night which would’ve been bitter-sweet for Victor Matfield as he became the most-capped Vodacom Super Rugby player in the history of South African rugby with 126 matches.
Scorers:
Toyota Cheetahs
- Penalty goals: Johan Goosen (4)
- Drop goal: Johan Goosen (1)
Vodacom Bulls
- Penalty goals: Louis Fouché (1), Handré Pollard (2)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIqjxBUvr14[/youtube]
Cell C Sharks (10) 27 / 9 (6) Hurricanes:
The Cell C Sharks cemented their place at the top of the Vodacom Super Rugby standings with a 27-9 win over the Hurricanes at Growthpoint Kings Park on Saturday afternoon.
However, the KwaZulu-Natalians will be disappointed that their great forward ascendancy, especially in the first half, did not lead to more tries. The Cell C Sharks really had their visitors from the New Zealand capital on the back-foot, but simply could not find the tryline.
As it stands, they outscored the Hurricanes by two tries to nil, but one of those was a well-taken intercept from 40 metres out by speedster Lwazi Mvovo.
Bulldozing loose forward Willem Alberts celebrated his 50th appearance for the Cell C Sharks with their first try after a period of sustained pressure on the ‘Canes’ line.
The rest of the Cell C Sharks’ points came from the boot of Pat Lambie, who was spot-on with five of his six kicks at goal.
The Hurricanes, who play the DHL Stormers in Cape Town next weekend, never gave up though, but they were kept in the game by the Cell C Sharks finishing struggles.
Scorers:
Cell C Sharks
- Tries: Willem Alberts (1), Lwazi Mvovo (1)
- Conversion: Patrick Lambie (1)
- Penalty goals: Patrick Lambie (5)
Hurricanes
- Penalty goals: Beauden Barrett (2), Marty Banks (1)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWad5sdsBzk[/youtube]
Lions (22) 34 / 10 (10) DHL Stormers:
For a second successive week the Lions caused an upset as they kept on celebrating their return to Vodacom Super Rugby with a magnificent 34-10 win over the DHL Stormers at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Saturday evening.
Unlike their victory over the Toyota Cheetahs, which came thanks to a last-minute drop-goal, the Lions were the dominant side from the opening play and they kept it up for most of the 80 minutes.
The victory was built on Marnitz Boshoff’s dominant boot and a superb defensive effort, which saw the Lions turning over the scoreboard with regularity and keeping the DHL Stormers scoreless in the second half.
The Lions started very strongly – by the 19th minute Stefan Watermeyer had scored a try and Boshoff had added a conversion, two drop-goals and two penalty goals as the home side scored at a point a minute.
Thereafter the DHL Stormers narrowed the gap, with Scarra Ntubeni scoring his first Vodacom Super Rugby try, but the Lions were not to let this one slip. They stepped up the intensity after the break, especially on defence, with Boshoff and Co effectively kicking for territory and turning any scoring opportunity into points.
This was the first time in seven years the Lions have managed back-to-back Vodacom Super Rugby victories – in 2007 they beat the Reds and Force on consecutive weekends in rounds four and five.
It was also the Lions franchise’s biggest win in any local derby. As the Cats, they beat the Vodacom Bulls by 57-24 in 1999 and the DHL Stormers by 41-7 in 1998.
Scorers:
Lions
- Try: Stefan Watermeyer (1)
- Conversion: Marnitz Boshoff (1)
- Penalty goals: Marnitz Boshoff (6)
- Drop goals: Marnitz Boshoff (3)
DHL Stormers
- Try: Scarra Ntubeni
- Conversion: Demetri Catrakilis (1)
- Penalty goal: Demetri Catrakilis (1)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0C7r0rIfMQ[/youtube]
Other results – Round 2:
Crusaders 10 / 18 Chiefs (Christchurch)
Highlander 29 / 21 Blues (Dunedin)
Brumbies 17 / 27 Reds (Canberra)
Waratahs 43 / 21 Force (Sydney)
@ grootblousmile:
Eish the ginger, he must go to bed at nights dreaming about one day putting over a drop goal.
@ grootblousmile:
He dropped the Ball more, than Boshof on the night.
31 @ MacroBull:
Hehehe
The “Ginger Ninja”… who eats a lot of Kitskos….
He looks like one of the Ninja Turtles.
@ Lion4ever:
Don’t get me wrong i am backling the Lions all the way even after they gave my team a “pakslae”, I am just hoping they can keep up the intensity, especially when they play oversee teams and not roll over and play dead, which they usually do.
@ Scrumsaam:
But on the weekend Goosen dropped it 12 times more than anyone.
@ MacroBull:
Yes thanks for the reminder, he tried both feet and non of them got happy. So cheetahs and Lions try and win their games with drop goals that’s interesting do the coaches know something we don’t.
@ Scrumsaam:
I think if Frans Steyn watched that game and thought to himseld, “this is getting ridiculous”
Geez, need to go home now.
*I thinking, Frans Steyn watched that game and thought to himself, “this is getting ridiculous”
@ Scrumsaam:
Only time will tell. Previous Lions teams would have wilted under the pressure the Stormers put them under. If the Lions even play with half the heart they showed against the Stormers, against the the NZ and Aus teams, they should beat the lower rated teams like the Force, Rebels, Blues and Highlanders.
@ MacroBull:
Or both teams do not have confidence in their attack? Going to mail Stormers now and tell them to start with drop goals.
@ Lion4ever:
They need to beat the top rank teams and help the other SA teams, Saturday didn’t help at all.
@ Scrumsaam:
True, wins over the Crusaders, Chiefs, Reds and Waratahs would be brilliant. Even beating 2 of them would great.
@ Lion4ever:
Really hoping lions have a great season even if it is just to get a sponsor.
@ Scrumsaam: Bwahahaha! The Goosen and le Roux “dropped goals” were never any real attempts, more a tactic to keep the Bulls pinned in their own half, due to the terrible conditions the match was played in. You can be sure that given better conditions the Cheetahs will be doing a lot more attacking with ball n hand.
They will be daft not to, excellent backline, complimented by a very busy and balanced loose trio. Heck even their props run better than they scrum
@ grootblousmile:
That Stormers strategy with a prop taking the ball up amazes me. They do it year in and year out without any success.
Used to be Brok the rock now the ginger has been tasked with it.
Stupid idea and so easy to read.
45 @ John Galt:
Agree, and it’s not that props have the best hands out there.
If you want to take the ball up from that position, leta No 8 with better hands and better recycling ability do it…
No wonder the Stormers backline does not score often enough, because half (or more) of their balls get wasted by this tactic.
Stormers still believe Brok Harris is the new Quade Cooper…
@ Cheetah4eva:
haha, Cheetahs will lead the kicking stats for most of the competition though.
well this is way better than what passes for KEO these days, well done to the Lions never saw that one coming, and well done my beloved bloembashers!!! Wish Brussouw was back but no complaints about the loose trio especially Boom, bloody huge game against the Bulls. Good to blog again on a real rugby blog and not the FACEBOOK”we know our rugby”Blog.
Stormers will get better, to much class not to, but sheesh like Bulls some or any variation on attack no bad thing 😉
Sam Vimes wrote:
Sam, what class?
I still can’t see how a team and coaching squad, who when at their best, still couldn’t win anything that counted, will now get better after they lost good players, kept the rubbish and stuck to the same one dimensional coaches that has taken them nowhere.
The blind school first XV of Worcester can see the Stormers game plan a mile away and will be able to counter them.
Sorry, but being optimistic and being obtuse is 2. Different things, and I for one have given up with this charade of ” this year is our year” or ” next year is our year”
It’s clear that the best thing that can happen in Cape Town is that we must get smashed every game like a CC team did to us last week, maybe then will they fire those that deserved to be fired. Get rid of the players who are just there and get proper players in.
As soon as they win a couple of ugly games, AC gets a new contract.
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