Bulls beat the Crusaders to head in the Super 14 final
The defending champion Bulls will host the final of the Super 14 after they beat the Crusaders 39-24 in the first semifinal at the Orlando Stadium yesterday. They will host the Stormers, who won the other semi, at the same venue next weekend.Fourie Du Preez once again showed why he’s widely regarded as the premier scrumhalf in world rugby as, along with flyhalf Morne Steyn, he steered his side into the final with another great display as the Bulls kept up their run of 19 undefeated games at home.
Steyn himself scored 24 points, reaching and breaking Dan Carters 2006 record for the most points in a Super 14 season, 221. Steyn kicked nine penalties and three conversions, with tries scored by Fourie Du Preez, Pierre Spies, and Zane Kirchner.
Despite having to travel to South Africa for the second time in three weeks, Crusaders captain Richie McCaw refused to blame fatigue or travel for the loss.
"We've got no excuses with the travel. We were ready to go and we came up short," he said graciously. "It was just about little mistakes that we just couldn't afford to make," he said. "Their up and unders that we just needed to take, little things like that - and straight away they put us on the back foot. You start playing catch-up and they just punish you for it."
Bulls captain Victor Matfield said that despite playing away from 'fort' Loftus, he was happy to be part of the special occasion in Soweto, and was hoping to see the crowd out again next weekend for the final.
"I've played 100 games for the Bulls and this is one of the best experiences I've ever had," Matfield said. "Everyone's going to be back here next week and it's going to be huge."
There was a lot of talk last week about the Bulls resting players for their last round-robin game, but it proved a masterstroke as they looked fresh against the Crusaders.
"It's going to be a great final next week, but credit to all the guys for making our third final in four years," Man of the Match Du Preez said.
"There's been a lot of talk about our rest last week. But it's a tough competition. I think the rest helped us perform today," he added.
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29 Comments:
never thought I would do that: FIRST
By
Anonymous, at May 23, 2010 12:38 pm
Anyway seemed a great game, apparently quite realistic from de bulls.
By
Anonymous, at May 23, 2010 12:40 pm
i think stiormers are gonna win the final of course great to have sa final xp
By
Anonymous, at May 23, 2010 12:42 pm
The bulls 9 & 10 are just too damn good, hate to say it but it's true...
By
Anonymous, at May 23, 2010 12:45 pm
RD, why don't you put some post match interviews? Great video though!! It's gana be tough for any team to beat this bulls team..
By
Anonymous, at May 23, 2010 1:18 pm
Nah don't bother with the interviews RD. It's always just 'Yeah it was a tough match. Team X are a really good side and we knew it'd be a really physical game. We're really proud of the boys though, but now we just have to concentrate on next week's game.'
By
Anonymous, at May 23, 2010 1:24 pm
"steyn kicked nine penalties and three conversions,along with three bulls tries".that makes 48,not 39
By
Ireland for WC 2011, at May 23, 2010 1:27 pm
knock-on by houugard for kirchner's try,touches the ball about two yards out from the line and kirchner catches it on the line....
By
Anonymous, at May 23, 2010 1:36 pm
Yeah, knock on before Bulls 2nd try, but fair win anyways. Crusaders looked like muppets under the high ball.
By
Anonymous, at May 23, 2010 2:35 pm
Du preez pass to spies for the first try was magic!! Du preez is brilliant!!! BRING ON THE STORMERS - CAN'T WAIT!!!
By
Anonymous, at May 23, 2010 3:02 pm
Really thought this was going to be the closest of the two semi's, what happened to the crusaders - they are better than this!!! Good win to the bulls anyway - definately the best team of the comp and I believe that they will go on and win it again...
By
Anonymous, at May 23, 2010 3:03 pm
^ Me too - crusaders were never in it..
By
Anonymous, at May 23, 2010 3:04 pm
It was closer than that, for anyone who watched the game. As soon as Wyatt Crockett came on, the penalties started to rise at the scrum and the Bulls pulled away. It was 3-3 on tries, 6-1 on penalties. But Crusaders messed up a lot of tries, Andy Ellis dropped the ball with no one infront of him one metre from the line, Sean Maitland got ankle tapped by a whisker with no one else around him whatsoever.
Yeah, the Bulls won, but it could have easily gone the other way, Bulls looked rubbish on attack as the game went on.
By
Josh, at May 23, 2010 8:56 pm
dire defenses, catch with your hands not your head!
and for du preez try where was the Crusaders no 9 going, should be covering the opposite scrum half, even school kids know that. left him with a fairly simple run in.
i agree that it was a knock on but in super 14 they never call them, was another one in the clip and the ref gestured 'backwards' .
By
mat, at May 24, 2010 12:43 am
^ Oh, shut it you idiot - bet you have not watched a full S14 match in your life and you comment on the way they play... S14 is the highest level of rugby before international - the 3N sides defence is brilliant against the rest of the world - until then shut the hell up and watch this type of rugby and learn how to play!!!!!
By
Anonymous, at May 24, 2010 12:55 am
The bulls always win the important matches, that's what makes a champion side! Can't wait for the final! BULLS FOREVER!
By
Anonymous, at May 24, 2010 12:55 am
why do the northern hemisphere people on here always look for the negatives.
i think your just jealous coz s14 and 3n is so much better than the heineken cup and the 6n, especially the attack!
knock on or not the bulls still would have won by 8.
if the s14 champs played the heineken cup champs it would be a walk over, i tried watching the heineken cup final yesterday but could only watch 3 minutes at a time coz its so slow and boring.
By
Anonymous, at May 24, 2010 2:59 am
Last comment : Dig further, you'll find oil. Most stupid comment until now, bravo !
By
Anonymous, at May 24, 2010 3:41 am
At the anonymous comment about the Heineken cup final (too many anonymous comments, please use a name), I couldn't even watch the highlights clip. To me a highlights clip shouldn't be penalty kick, forwards make a bit of ground, penalty kick, scrum collapse, penalty kick. That is not a bloody hightlights clip, that is a snooze fest.
By
Les Bleus, at May 24, 2010 12:48 pm
With the amount of travelling they've done, the Saders were never in this one - did you hear that as the Tahs finished higher in the league, they had first rights to business class seats, and rather than travel in economy the Saders waited to travel to SA the following day...
Several people have made the point that the Saders made errors etc and could have had a chance... truth is the Bulls are where the Saders were 7 years ago, primed for the big occasions and always being able to do enough to win.
Just on a tactical level, one thing the Bulls do better than any team out there is send out a skip pass to the big carrier (as with the Spies try), somehow they manage to find a soft spot in the defence most times. Not sure whether it is how they line up, or there's particularly good timing between Du Preez and his runners, or the runners are just so darn physically big, but the Bulls have almost continuous go-forward ball, it's scary.
By
edbok, at May 24, 2010 2:26 pm
to anonymous;
i agree that the 3N have great defenses, SA world cup was built on their defense.
But for this game some of the defending was horrible. i never said all S14 defending is bad, but have seen a few games where it has and there were some moments in this one.
for the du Preez try the opposite no.9 just ran away to midfield, scrum half should always mark his opposite at set pieces any coach would say that.
and awful fielding of the high ball with his head.
without those lapses would have been tight!
By
mat, at May 24, 2010 2:54 pm
great game of rugby
By
stuart d, at May 24, 2010 3:37 pm
The internet is full of experts who watch short clips then give their high & mighty analysis of what the players did wrong. This thread is no different.
Anyway, powerful stuff from the Bulls once again. I hope the Stormers can shake things up a bit though and get one over them next weekend.
By
Scotsdale, at May 24, 2010 4:57 pm
Mat, Du Preez is probably the best scrum half in the world, and he was playing the Saders, a team packed full of All Blacks.
That he scored a try down the blind side is just a credit to his vision and ability, not an inditmenet on the Saders defence.
These are All Blacks you are talking about, they can defend, they have no toruble defending against European teams.
It's only when they play really great players, like the top South Africans and Australians, that they get beaten in defence.
By
Jim, at May 25, 2010 12:50 am
RD get some of Olivier's big hits!!
Matfield (best lock in the world) + Spies (best attacking 8 in the planet) + Du Preez (best scrum half and maybe player now) + Morné Steyn (n°1 goal, positional and drop kicker in both hemiespheres) = an uneatable side.
Good luck the Stormers!
By
Joost, at May 25, 2010 1:09 am
Du Preez is damn good!
By
Anonymous, at May 25, 2010 9:47 am
"scrum half should always mark his opposite at set pieces any coach would say that."
That's not the way the defenses are generally organised, but never mind.
What Ellis did wrong here is he "cheated" across to cover the open side. And Du Preez is too good a player to miss such an opportunity.
From a scrum far to left, teams generally do not run a blind-side move, and defenses assume that 6 and 8 will be able to break up any move before it gets started. In this case, not only did Ellis scoot over too early, but the scrum also wheeled to take 6 out of play and give Du Preez an even clearer run.
It's not unusual for a scrumhalf to track across like Ellis did, but he jumped the gun here, and the Saders got punished because the Bulls have the players who will do that to you.
By
edbok, at May 25, 2010 11:12 am
Blah blah, Northern Hemisphere are girls blah blah Southern Hemisphere have bad defence and live in huts......PLEASE can we stop this pathetic my country/hemisphere is better than yours.
The match was not as exciting as it could be because the contest was not close enough. This does not mean that excellent skills were not exhibited on both sides. I hope no one now acuses me of being a "Hater", "anti-bok" etc. However, as a Northern Hemisphere based person of Kiwi/UK nationality the result was the right one and the best team with the most outstanding performances won. I'd be interested to hear whether anyone thinks Dan Carter who I thought was particularly poor during the match is the still the right 10 for the All Blacks? Is there anyone we coule replace him with? Cheers N
By
NiWiTa, at May 25, 2010 2:54 pm
mat
Ellis covered the first channel, the opposing 10. Defending 10 covers second channel, the attacking 12. And so forth. This is done because the defending 15 hangs back for the kick, and the defense are thus a man short on the wing.
The blindside saders player was supposed to cover du Preez, but because the scrum got wheeled he was behind from the start.
By
boomer, at May 25, 2010 8:08 pm
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