Investec Champions Cup, Round 2

ROUND 2

Friday 13 December
Sale Sharks v Racing 92 (8pm)
Castres v Munster (8pm)

Saturday 14 December
Bulls v Northampton Saints (1pm)
Ulster v Bordeaux-Bègles (3.15pm) Free on France TV
Leinster v Clermont Auvergne (5.30pm) Free on RTÉ
Leicester Tigers v Sharks (5.30pm)
La Rochelle v Bristol Bears (8pm)
Harlequins v Stormers (8pm)

Sunday 15 December
Benetton v Bath (1pm)
Stade Français v Saracens (1pm) Free on France TV
Toulon v Glasgow Warriors (3.15pm)

VODACOM BULLS vs NORTHAMPTON SAINTS
Investec Champions Cup, Round 2
Saturday 14 December, 2024
Loftus Versfeld
Kick-off: 3pm local (1pm UK time)

15 George Furbank (c)
14 Tommy Freeman
13 Fraser Dingwall
12 Rory Hutchinson
11 Ollie Sleightholme
10 Fin Smith
9 Alex Mitchell

1 Emmanuel Iyogun
2 Curtis Langdon
3 Elliot Millar Mills
4 Temo Mayanavanua
5 Tom Lockett
6 Alex Coles
7 Henry Pollock
8 Juarno Augustus

Replacements:
16 Craig Wright
17 Tarek Haffar
18 Trevor Davison
19 Chunya Munga
20 Angus Scott-Young
21 Tom Pearson
22 Archie McParland
23 George Hendy

Not available for selection:
Emeka Atuanya, Sam Graham, Callum Hunter-Hill, Josh Kemeny, Burger Odendaal, Toby Thame and Robbie Smith.

VODACOM BULLS SIDE TO FACE SAINTS:
15 Willie le Roux, 14 Sebastian de Klerk, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 David Kriel, 11 Devon Williams, 10 Johan Goosen, 9 Embrose Papier; 1 Gerhard Steenekamp, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 3 Wilco Louw, 4 Ruan Vermaak, 5 JF van Heerden, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 7 Elrigh Louw (c), 8 Cameron Hanekom,
Replacements: 16 Jan-hendrik Wessels, 17 Alulutho Tshakweni, 18 Francois Klopper, 19 Deon Slabbert, 20 Kuyenzeka Nama Xaba, 21 Zak Burger, 22 Boeta Chamberlain, 23 Stedman Gans.

Referee: Luc Ramos (FRA)
Assistant referees: Jeremy Rozier (FRA) and Adrien Marbot (FRA)
No.4: Toit du Toit (SA)
TMO: Thomas Charabas (FRA)

Feels like the Bulls are about to unload a few scores on Saints.

That last passage sums up the game so far.

Saints kick a penalty to touch, then the throw is called not straight. Bulls call for a scrum and win a penalty. Wille le Roux kicks a monster touch-finder, the Bulls win the lineout and stroll over for a try. Which was called back for obstruction.

Furbank has hurt his lower right arm, and has gone off.

Against the run of play, Hendy, who is on the field for Furbank, scores the first try. Somehow, Saints can't get a relatively straightforward conversion.

From the kick-off, the Bulls work up the middle, and end up going straight under the posts. They don't miss, so the Bulls finally take the lead on the 35th minute. Bulls 7-5 Saints.

Saints scrum is leaking penalties at the moment.

Rugby Fan wrote:Saints scrum is leaking penalties at the moment.

Seconds after writing that, Saints won a scrum penalty.

Saints had a penalty in front but elected to go for touch. They won the lineout but knocked on short of the line.

Saints will probably need tries, so that wasn't necessarily a bad decision. Still, the second half was nearly up, and it was a chance to go in ahead, and eat up some time.

As it turns out, Saints suffered because they got penalized at the next scrum, which gav them a yellow card.

And then Saints turned it to their advantage, Mitchell capitalized on a Bulls mistake, broke quickly, and set up a try. Finn Smith converted,

Bulls 7-12 Saints at half-time

Saints to start the second half a man down.

At altitude, you'd still expect the Bulls to pull away. So far, though, they have blown a series of chances. If they keep doing that, and Saints take occasional chances to stay ahead, then the visitors might develop the self-belief to keep going to the final whistle.

If the Bulls hit back early, and pull away, it'll be harder for Saints to stay competitive, though Pollock will probably keep picking fights till the end.

On a couple of occasions, the referee has given a free kick against the Saints scrum. That's helpful for the visitors, as you now can't call a scrum again from that kind of free kick.

If the Saints can work out how to give away free kicks, and not penalties, then they have a chance in the scrum.

Saints back to fifteen, without conceding a score.

Bizarre. Bulls had all the pressure and a kick over the top looked like a clear try chance. Two Bulls players got in the way of each other and didn't get a clear touch down. Bulls still had a penalty but Saints got out of jail after yet another knock-on.

The reviews and stoppages might be helping Saints cope with altitude.

Finn Smith has slotted a penalty to make it Bulls 7-15 Saints after 58 minutes

Amazing

Alex Mitchell was midway between his own 22 and the half-way, and kicked a beautiful 50-22 just short of the Bulls goaline. Moments later, Freeman bowled over for a try.

The TMO reviewed, but Freeman managed to keep his fist on the ball all the time.

From the kick-off, the Bulls set up a maul inside the Saints half, and scored straight under the posts. The try-score even fended off the referee at one point.

Bulls 14-22 Saints after 63 minutes

Saints earned another penalty and went for the lineout again. It worked so well last time. This time, they give away a penalty for obstruction, Would the three point kick have been a better option?

Thanks for the commentary RF, did the ref impede Mitchell when the SH ran into him?

Bulls go straight up the middle from a scrum on the 70 minute mark

Bulls 21-22 Saints

Saints should have taken the 3 points when offered.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:Thanks for the commentary RF, did the ref impede Mitchell when the SH ran into him?

Really don't know. Saints haven't had too many bad calls, though, so they can't get too upset.

Smith makes it Bulls 21-25 Saints after 73 minutes

Rugby Fan wrote:

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:Thanks for the commentary RF, did the ref impede Mitchell when the SH ran into him?

Really don't know. Saints haven't had too many bad calls, though, so they can't get too upset.

I suppose three trys disallowed is better than the norm for the away side

The Bulls are getting wound up, and pushing and shoving. That could help give the Saints some energy for the last six minutes.

The Saints have a four point lead, with four minutes to go. They basically have to stop the Bulls scoring a try.

Even better, Freeman has scored a try!

Oh my days!

The Saints are set to get a bonus point win in Loftus....

Smith misses the conversion but the score is Bulls 21-30 Saints with 90 seconds left

Bonus point away in SA, that is a rarity

Freeman was tight on the right wing, and a cut-out pass found him with a free run to the line for that try.

Even in my dreams I did not think that would happen.

That's the kind of game this competition needs. Saints sent a strong team, with few giving them a chance.

The Bulls looked to have everything well in hand, but kept fumbling the ball, and botching scoring chances.

Suddenly Saints got a score, gave away another, got one back, and went into half-time unexpectedly ahead.

Then it came down to time pressure, as Bulls couldn't get back in front, and Saints took their opportunities.

Shows the benefit of playing a full side away from home, the youngsters in the Saints side are going to learn a lot from today especially playing at high level like Pretoria.

Saints had 39% possession and 31% territory. They made 144 tackles to the Bulls 67. Bulls gave away 14 penalties to the Saints 11.

Man-of-the-match was given to a Bulls player. Didn't really watch how individuals were going but Alex Mitchell looked great, and Finn Smith had decent control. Pollock wound up a few opposition players.

Feck me. It's just after 10:00am and I'm exhausted. Perhaps the bloody marys helped........

I see Pollock was taken off very early, anything to do with him winding up the Bulls players or tactical?

He seems to wind people up without seeming to do anything, they just can't like being outplayed by someone that looks like he has to be at school on Monday.

Mitchell was phenomenal. Key role in two tries, including a superb 50-22 kick. You can see how valuable he is to England's prospects.

Overall, a truly tremendous effort from Northampton in tough conditions. They were clinical, Bulls weren't. Bulls must have been close to setting a record for the worst ratio of tries:22 visits.

Anybody have streaming issues? Got the Ulster game on my laptop through Premier Sports but every 6 minutes it suddenly goes to last nights game. Very odd.

If you watch nothing else in the video below, have a look at Mitchell's 50-22 around the 2:15 mark.

That 50:22 changed the game.  Mitchell was excellent.

Also that excellent slight delay and fake by Hutch setting up Freeman's last try.

Just caught up with the state of play at Ulster

What the...??? How many yellow cards?

Ulster 14-14 Bordeaux after 38 minutes

Ulster go ahead at half-time.

Echoes of the Saints game. You'd expect Bordeaux to come out annoyed in the second half, and run up a score as they did last week. We just saw in South Africa how that doesn't always happen.

Ulster 19-14 Bordeaux.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:I see Pollock was taken off very early, anything to do with him winding up the Bulls players or tactical?

He seems to wind people up without seeming to do anything, they just can't like being outplayed by someone that looks like he has to be at school on Monday.

Sorry, just saw your question.  No, Pollock was a bit quieter today, I thought, probably since this was another level up in intensity and physicality.  And he is learning people will try to wind him up.  I think this was planned because Pearson came on as Pollock's replacement and was very good indeed.

Holy crow, I go into the kitchen with Ulster up 19-14 to help the missus and I come back and see Bordeaux has grabbed two tries. I would really like to see Ulster grab this one.

doctor_grey wrote:Holy crow, I go into the kitchen with Ulster up 19-14 to help the missus and I come back and see Bordeaux has grabbed two tries.  I would really like to see Ulster grab this one.  

oops, three tries now. Bielle-Biarrey is some player.

Ulster kept the lead until around the 60 minute mark but have just shipped two tries, and it's 19-28 with around 10 minutes to go.

And that's a sucker-punch.

Ulster had an attacking lineout, but lost the ball forward. Bordeaux shipped it wide quickly and raced away to score. 19-35 with seven minutes to go.

Well. Ulster doing Ulster things.

Think I will find something positive to say tomorrow

Not unlike what Bordeaux produced against Leicester last week. Leicester held a 14-21 lead over the French at half-time, then lost the game to a flurry of tries.

Does anyone know how far this Sharks team is to their best lineup? Obviously some important players missing.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:I see Pollock was taken off very early, anything to do with him winding up the Bulls players or tactical?

He seems to wind people up without seeming to do anything, they just can't like being outplayed by someone that looks like he has to be at school on Monday.

Yeah, WQ Lockett had a good game no doubt (I didn’t watch it).

I wonder what’s up with Bulls in this competition? I did expect them to put 40-50 on Saints tbh. Great win by Northampton.

doctor_grey wrote:Does anyone know how far this Sharks team is to their best lineup?  Obviously some important players missing.  

It’s probably a second choice midfield and front-row, and no Etzebeth or Kolisi but, they have good depth anyway.

doctor_grey wrote:Does anyone know how far this Sharks team is to their best lineup?  Obviously some important players missing.  

A long way off. I think nine changes from last week's game?

But credit to Leicester, they're doing the job in style. Very weird try in that half when a Sharks player did brilliantly to keep the ball in play off a Leicester penalty kick to touch...only to deflect the ball right into the path of Hassell-Collins who scored.