The 34-10 win for the Pretoria side at Emirates Airline Park marked only their second in the competition after seven rounds of matches, and it allowed them to leap-frog the Emirates Lions on the standings.

In Saturday’s second SA derby, the DHL Stormers cancelled out a 11-3 halftime lead by the Cell C Sharks at Hollywoodbets Kings Park to snatch a 22-22 draw at the death as they were awarded a penalty try for a deliberate knock-down with a two-man overlap and the tryline begging.

The Durbanites still lead the standings in the South African Shield with 16 points from their seven matches, which also sees them in overall 10^th position), followed by the DHL Stormers on 14 points (12^th position) and the Vodacom Bulls and Emirates Lions on 12 points (in 13^th and 14^th position respectively).

Next weekend, the Vodacom Bulls host the Emirates Lions in Pretoria (15h00), and the Cell C Sharks travel to Cape Town to take on the DHL Stormers (17h05).

Dominant Vodacom Bulls grab five points in Joburg

The Vodacom Bulls finally recorded their second victory in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship when they beat the Emirates Lions by 34-10 in a hard-fought Jukskei Derby on a wet Saturday afternoon in in Johannesburg.

Unlike last week, the men from Pretoria started very well, and they breached the hosts’ try-line four times in the first half hour, with the TMO unfortunately disallowing two of these “tries”. But the Vodacom Bulls were still dominant enough in the first half to go into the break leading by 20-3.

The visitors were under pressure in the scrums but created a lot of opportunities, with Johan Grobbelaar (hooker) and Embrose Papier rewarded with first-half tries, and they built on this in the second half, with Arno Botha (loose forward) and Harold Vorster (centre) grabbing two more five-pointers.

On the contrary, the Emirates Lions only managed to get into the game in the 10 minutes before the break, making too many unforced errors to really trouble their neighbours’ defence. This trend continued after the break as the hosts let slip numerous opportunities.

Scorers:

Emirates Lions 10 (3) – Try: Jaco Kriel. Conversion: Tiaan Swanepoel. Penalty goal: Fred Zeilinga.

Vodacom Bulls 34 (20) – Tries: Johan Grobbelaar, Embrose Papier, Arno Botha, Harold Vorster. Conversions: Morne Steyn (4). Penalty goals: Steyn (2).

Drama in Durban as DHL Stormers snatch draw

A penalty try after the full-time buzzer had sounded saw the DHL Stormers secure a 22-22 draw with the Cell C Sharks in a humdinger of a Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash at Hollywoodbets Kings Park in Durban on Saturday.

The Cell C Sharks led by 11-3 at the break as Springbok centre Lukhanyo Am scored a try and Boeta Chamberlain (flyhalf) kicked a penalty goal and drop goal to a solitary penalty goal by DHL Stormers flyhalf Manie Libbok.

The Capetonians, however, fought back strongly in the second half to earn two penalty tries and a five-pointer by Springbok utility back Damian Willemse, which saw them sneak through for a draw, which seemed unlikely for most of the match.

Scorers:

Cell C Sharks 22 (11) – Tries: Lukhanyo Am, Makazole Mapimpi. Penalty goals: Boeta Chamberlain (3). Drop goal: Chamberlain.

DHL Stormers 22 (3) – Tries: Damian Willemse, Penalty Try (2). Penalty goals: Manie Libbok.