The Cell C Sharks continued their dominance over the Vodacom Bulls at Jonsson Kings Park with a well-constructed and highly-deserved 30-16 Vodacom United Rugby Championship victory on Friday evening.
While matches involving the Bulls are typically tight, physical battles, both sides came out to play positive and exciting running rugby, which is not to say the contesting wasn’t brutal or uncompromising.
There may be numerous subtleties to a game, but the Cell C Sharks forwards must take a bow for the way they absolutely dominated the scrums and never let up. Upping the ante and energy levels in the second half also paid huge dividends to set up this memorable victory.
While the visitors gained reward at the breakdown, they were under severe pressure at scrum-time where a dominant Cell C Sharks pack gave away nothing at the set-piece, earning penalty after penalty with the heavier Bulls pack weight unable to compete.
With much of the early game played in the middle of the field, despite their best intentions, neither side was able to penetrate and turn possession into points. By the 10th minute of this absorbing clash, the scoreboard had yet to change.
At the third scrum where the Bulls were under pressure and with advantage being played in the Cell C Sharks’ favour, they managed to get into the best scoring positon of the game, with Jeremy Ward being held up millimetres short of the tryline.
The first points of the game came just shy of the 20th minute, the Bulls conceding yet another penalty, this time at the breakdown and earning a warning from the referee for repeated infringements as the penalty count continued to mount against them. Boeta Chamberlain’s converted penalty got his team on the scoreboard.
However, it was the Bulls who scored the first try of the game, regaining possession from their kick-off and mounting a strong attack that was initially repelled but eventually earned the seven-pointer.
Morne Steyn pushed his team into a 10-3 lead on the half hour mark, but Chamberlain’s second penalty kept his team in touch, thanks to another dominant scrum for the Cell C Sharks.
The flyhalves traded late penalties to bring up a 13-9 half-time lead for the visitors.
With 10 minutes of exciting second half action, yet another scrum penalty and more warnings for the Bulls saw Chamberlain cut the lead to just one point, which was then overhauled two minutes later when the Bulls, on a promising attack, threw a long pass perfectly read by inspiring captain Lukhanyo Am who raced downfield to score under the posts. Chamberlain’s conversion saw the Cell C Sharks forcing a 10 point turn around.
Steyn hardly had time to cut his team’s deficit to three points when Chamberlain restored the six point lead as the game hit the final quarter. The Bulls’ scrum continued to haemorrhage penalties, but under a warning, were cut down to 14 men.
The lead was extended to nine points after an act of foul play from the visitors was penalised, and they continued to earn the ire of the referee, defending their line and giving away another penalty which was kicked to touch. The lineout was pin-point perfect and the driving maul something to savour as the Bulls had no counter to the energy in the drive that saw Kerron van Vuuren over and the lead now 14 points with less than 10 minutes of the game remaining.
Despite their unassailable lead, there was no resting on laurels and another scrum penalty with a minute of the game remaining was testament to just how much the result meant to the players.
Any disappointments over last week’s cancelled match had the effect of galvanising the Cell C Sharks into delivering a truly committed performance against the old foes and they will truly relish this victory.
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