CAPE TOWN - First box ticked, and now to secure a home Currie Cup semi-final. That is the next goal for Jake White’s all-conquering Blue Bulls this weekend when they travel to Durban to take on the Sharks at Jonsson Kings Park.
One more win should clinch a Loftus Versfeld semi-final for the Pretoria-based team, as they are already eight points ahead of the Durbanites on the standings – 32 to 24, although the Sharks do have a game in hand.
Doing so would also allow captain Duane Vermeulen to get a much-needed break for a few weeks, but the plan nearly came apart against the Cheetahs at Loftus at the weekend.
Although the 40-13 final scoreline suggests a runaway victory for the hosts, it was deadlocked at 13-13 at halftime, and it looked like the Cheetahs could pull off a second successive surprise over the Bulls, having won in Bloemfontein earlier in the season.
But Trevor Nyakane came on for Marcel van der Merwe, who was enduring a difficult day in the scrums against Boan Venter, and inspired the Bulls forwards into rediscovering their bite in the scrums, helped to get their maul going again, and reignited their physicality upfront.
“Trevor is a World Cup winner, comes on and takes charge. All of a sudden, we get a scrum penalty, which changes the whole game,” White acknowledged.
Vermeulen spoke in the postmatch TV interview about how he had told his team before the game to be ready to deal with pressure from the Cheetahs, and so it proved at 13-13 at the break.
But they kept grinding away, and Morne Steyn produced a flawless kicking display (four penalties, two conversions), while the Bulls caught the Cheetahs off guard on a few occasions with clever lineout variations as well.
“One of the things I said postgame too is the reality is that that is what good sides do.
“Sides like Leinster, that have dominated the PRO14, they can be 13-all at half-time and they can end up getting a result like that, because they understand what they do at halftime – and the direction they get from the coaches and leaders – can turn things around,” White said.
“Last week (against Western Province), we played with 14 men and showed massive amounts of character to win a game. This week, we had to play well in the second half and in almost the last five minutes, go hard for the bonus point, which we got as well.
“When you are ticking off those little building blocks, as a group – and we are going to be in these situations again with 14 men or need a bonus point. When we do it like that, those things will go into your memory bank and you get a lot of confidence as a group.”
The Sharks come off a bye, and sometimes teams battle to get going quickly in the following week’s match, but Sean Everitt’s team will be keen to avenge their 41-14 Super Rugby Unlocked defeat to the Bulls and also keep their home semi-final hopes alive.
“It’s always nice to be in front, and to have your destiny in your own hands. We don’t have to wait for other teams to win games for us,” said White.
“But I have coached in Natal and I know what goes on there. I know how they play at home and I know what’s coming. So, we are looking forward to next week’s game.”