Petersen’s surge gets Bulls into URC final
The Bulls’ fortunes appeared to tenuously rest on the fingertips of right-wing Sergeal Petersen in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship (URC) semifinal against Leinster at Loftus Versfeld.
He went from halftime villain to full-time hero as he helped separate the Bulls from Leinster in their tightly contested 25-20 victory.
Petersen, barely getting off the ground, got fingertips to a contestable kick that looped gently into his path allowing him to race clear in the 68th minute to score the match winning try, marking it with an outrageous swan dive.
Earlier, however, his fortunes took a dive when he got fingertips to a Leinster pass that earned him a yellow card in the 22nd minute. Leinster scored a try from the resultant penalty, leaving Bulls’ director of rugby Jake White most displeased.
“I gave him a bollocking at halftime,” White revealed after the match. “I told him, ‘you’ve gotta be brave. You can’t try and get in between defenders, make your tackles’.”
As the only Bulls player to have won the URC trophy, Petersen proved their lucky charm dotting down twice as the Bulls reached their second final.
While Petersen applied the finishing touches it was the Bulls pack that stood up to meet Leinster’s star-studded challenge. Man of the match Cameron Hanekom delivered a compelling performance from the back of the scrum, Elrigh Louw brought unremitting physicality, while the Bulls starting and finishing front rows had more than Leinster’s measure in the scrums.
White felt the Bulls did not get the reward for their efforts in the scrum and questioned why so few penalties were awarded by referee Sam Grove-White, who has come under heavy criticism for his handling of the match.
“The first 25 minutes there were two penalties. So much rugby was played, but only two things were illegal,” remarked a perplexed White.
While the Bulls conceded eight, Leinster, despite spending a fair amount of time under the cosh, conceded only four penalties in the match.
“I have to compliment Ruan [Nortjé] as an inexperienced captain. It is a human thing for a ref to have an ear open for an experienced captain. We saw that when Duane [Vermeulen] captained here. We saw that because you get more reaction,” White explained.
Apart from Petersen, the Bulls had other backline heroes. Fullback Willie le Roux made his vast experience count, while flyhalf Johan Goosen delivered a performance more reminiscent of his junior years.
“I thought Willie was outstanding. I think our back three surprised everybody,” said White.
The grizzled coach fired up Goosen in a prematch chat.
“I showed Goosen a match between Paul Roos and Grey where he scored 36 points out of 41 when he was in matric. I’ll play him the tape next week again,” said the mentor with a satisfied grin.
Tactically the Bulls also got the measure of Leinster. Apart from Le Roux’s diagonal cross kicks in which he tried to put the wings into space, the Bulls threw down the gauntlet to Leinster by generally kicking the ball deep.
In the end however, it was the Bulls resolute defence that carried the day. They made 163 tackles with an 88% success rate but crucially too they won five turnovers.
“I asked them ‘why can’t we defend like that every week?’ It is a challenge to push them every week. When a South African player decides he is going to tackle, then it becomes very difficult [for the opposition].”
White gave a sobering assessment of his team’s performance in which he noted they drifted off script. “We showed naïvity at times, but we got away with it.”
Overall however, the magnitude of the victory over a much decorated Leinster team did not escape the Rugby World Cup winning coach.
“Today wasn’t supposed to happen. You coach for those memories and [to] win trophies.”