Cape Town — Bulls captain Marcell Coetzee said that they hadn’t practised it before the game, but it was a drop goal by flyhalf Chris Smith that sent the Pretoria side into the United Rugby Championship semi-finals with a 30-27 victory over the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
The Bulls had taken charge with two tries early in the second half to go 27-13 ahead, after the Sharks had failed to capitalise on their pack’s dominance in the opening 40 minutes.
Tries by Coetzee and Cornal Hendricks in the third quarter looked to have sealed the victory, but the Sharks never gave up, with Jaden Hendrikse’s touchdown and a late try by Sikhumbuzo Notshe levelling matters at 27-27 with five minutes left.
But the Bulls absorbed more late pressure to work their way back upfield, and No 10 Smith slotted the winning drop goal.
“We didn’t even rehearse it! But ja, it paid off. It just showed the individual brilliance we have in the team. We will enjoy tonight, see what we get and will adapt and go forward,” Coetzee told SuperSport in a TV interview afterwards.
🟦 𝙎𝘾𝙀𝙉𝙀𝙎 𝙄𝙉 𝙋𝙍𝙀𝙏𝙊𝙍𝙄𝘼 🟦
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) June 4, 2022
Chris Smit slots a drop goal in the 84th minute to send the Vodacom Bulls into the Vodacom #URC semifinals!
What a match 👏 pic.twitter.com/TlXCQMKAHx
“I said before the game to the boys that it is going to come down to small margins, and using your opportunities. And sometimes you have to win ugly, but I’m just proud of the boys for showing composure and managing to get that victory in the end.
“The message at halftime was that we sucked up the pressure, we soaked it all in, and now we have to fire some shots. That’s what the Sharks did well — they got a good start off the block, and we managed to keep our composure and just absorb that pressure.
“Leading into the second half, we wanted to hit first, and we just built on that momentum. That showed the character of the Sharks — they were not going to lay down, and showed their desperation and their fight.
“But again, showing the composure, getting the penalty on the 22, setting up the maul, building up the phases… Then a little bit of cool heads, and we managed to pull it through.”
Bulls coach Jake White was a relieved man in the post-match press conference, as his team had roared back after halftime, but then allowed the Sharks back into the game.
He revealed that it was intense in the coaches’ box as well, but was delighted with how the home side kept their cool to claim the victory and set up a semi-final against either Leinster or Glasgow in Europe next weekend.
“Chris (Smith) probably thought there is so much pressure, he probably didn’t want to do it. He said to me he was obviously terrified! The nice thing is that it’s not the first time we see a Northern Transvaal guy drop a kick over!” White said.
“That game changed five times in the last sort of nine minutes — five minutes of normal time and four minutes of injury time.
“First half, we get into the change-room and we hadn’t played — we hardly got into their half, we hardly had the ball.
“When we did have it, we looked good enough. So, the message was make sure you start playing. Get your hands on the ball, and have a go. When we did, we looked outstanding at times.
“It’s one of those games that I knew was going to the wire. That’s how knockout rugby is going to be now… it takes little moments. We gave them 10 points from our own mistakes. They had a two-man overlap twice and didn’t finish, and the ball didn’t bounce nicely for Zak (Burger).
“As I said, it’s immaterial what happened before… Now it’s a one-off game, and that’s the way you play knockout rugby. We still scored three tries, and go to 84 minutes to win a game.
“But that’s the nice thing about sport, and why people come and watch. What’s going to happen now is that the Bulls supporters will keep coming back, because it was a fantastic game of rugby.
“I saw Sean (Everitt, Sharks coach) as he walked out, and it’s not nice. It would have been different if I was sitting here and they got a drop kick over at the end of the game. But that’s sport.”
Points-Scorers
Bulls 30 – Tries: Madosh Tambwe, Marcell Coetzee, Cornal Hendricks. Conversions: Chris Smith (3). Penalties: Smith (2). Drop goal: Smith (1).
Sharks 27 – Tries: Bongi Mbonambi, Jaden Hendrikse, Sikhumbuzo Notshe. Conversions: Curwin Bosch (3). Penalties: Bosch (2).
IOL Sport