It was a case of ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda’ for the Bulls against the Stormers at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night.
But when coach Jake White stripped it all down to the bare reality of where his team had contrived to lose a dramatic United Rugby Championship North-South Derby 19-16, it came down to them battling to handle the Stormers’ kicking game.
With their issues under the high ball, in the lineouts and with their handling in admittedly terribly slippery conditions – which led to a delayed kickoff of over an hour – the Bulls were their own worst enemies at times in the face of a determined Stormers pack who climbed in with vigour upfront.
Despite all of that, though, they went 16-12 up around the hour mark after replacement lock Ruan Vermaak scored after sustained pressure from the Bulls in the Stormers 22, and they would’ve hoped to close out the win.
But former Bulls utility back Wandisile Simelane had a moment to savour as he hacked the ball through and dived on it to score the decisive try in the 68th minute.
It came off another pinpoint Jurie Matthee up-and-under, which Warrick Gelant had won in the air, and Paul de Wet chipped through.
How about that gas from Wandisile Simelane 😲💣
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) March 1, 2025
📺 Stream #VURC on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/hgShQiBtco
That saw coach John Dobson and his Stormers team avenge the 33-32 defeat in Cape Town in early February.
“It’s easy... In the first half, our lineout was a bit shoddy, and then we never won any aerial contest the whole game,” White said in the post-match press conference.
“Every time there was an up-and-under from both sides, we were probably less efficient than the Stormers.
“It is easy to make excuses... it was just one of those things. But every time there was a ball up in the air, they kicked really well and put us under pressure.
“That one try that came, they isolated Sebastian (de Klerk). We knocked it on and hit Paul de Wet on the foot on the fly, and Simelane used his football skills to go and score against us.
“So, we probably never got the bounce of the ball – it happens sometimes. The ball didn’t really bounce into our hands, and when it did and two or three times we won it, we knocked it on in the next pick-up (or phase).
“Marco (van Staden) knocked it on once, and there was another time I think Ruan Vermaak knocked it on. It’s one of those things where, I said to the players, sometimes the conditions didn’t make it easy, but we probably made it hard for ourselves.
“The Stormers were good, hey. They kicked well. That try that they scored, Warrick contested well – and that’s their game. That’s the thing that frustrates everybody – we know that they kick up-and-unders, that they live off whatever comes off that up-and-under.
“Nine out of 10 times today, they did it as well as they could’ve. It became difficult in those conditions.”
White bemoaned the injuries to star wing Canan Moodie (concussion), flank Marco van Staden (knee) and lock Cobus Wiese (hamstring), but was also unsure about whether the Bulls had made the right decision to kick a late penalty into touch to set up a lineout instead of taking aim at the posts.
David Kriel had slotted all four of his goal-kicks during the match, although the late penalty would’ve been a difficult kick in the rain, as it was about 10 metres outside the Stormers 22, and 15 metres in from touch.
The Bulls won the subsequent lineout and took the ball through 10 phases, but then Player of the Match Evan Roos got his timing just right to contest the breakdown and win the decisive penalty for the Stormers.
Massive shift from @evanroos4 and a crucial steal at the death 👏
He's your @Vodacom #MOTM 🏅#BULvSTO | @Vodacom #URC | #OriginRound pic.twitter.com/F4uXYsUx8Q
“I look at the team and we could’ve drawn that game, and in the end, we decided to go for touch. Who knows, maybe we kick a long-range penalty (which was around eight metres inside the Bulls half and closer to the centre of the pitch with five minutes left),” White said.
“We also had a chance earlier on, where we could’ve taken a draw and kicked for the touchline.
“I just said to myself, one of the permutations of not playing today would’ve been two points each, and we wanted to try and win the game, win the conference.
“So, it’s quite ironic that it could still have ended up in a draw, and in hindsight, it probably would’ve suited us because we wouldn’t have had three injuries – two points without injuries.
“Now, you lose Canan in the fourth minute, and he is probably the best under the high ball in our team. We lose Cobus Wiese and Marco within 47 minutes... That comes with a break in rhythm, a break in cohesion.
TRY! The @Vodacom @BlueBullsRugby cross the line and take the lead in a slippery battle at Loftus 👀#BULvSTO | @Vodacom #URC | #OriginRound pic.twitter.com/9WS12A6cKY
“So, I thought we did really well to come back and take the lead after 60-odd minutes. But we just couldn’t win the aerial battle, and couldn’t get our lineout going in the beginning.
“But credit to the Stormers. I’ve said this many times: they are a tough team to beat, hey. They are very good at what they did tonight, and they’ve probably beaten us a lot of times because of the return they’ve got from the way they kicked.”
Points-Scorers
Bulls 16 – Try: Ruan Vermaak. Conversion: David Kriel (1). Penalties: Kriel (3).
Stormers 19 – Try: Wandisile Simelane. Conversion: Jurie Matthee (1). Penalties: Matthee (4).