The North-South derby between Western Province and the Blue Bulls in the Currie Cup this weekend proved to be everything that was expected of it. Both sides pummeled each other for large parts of a game that had a good old Test match feel to it. No tries were scored, so heres the best of the rough stuff from what was an extremely physical contest.
Western Province snatched the 15-12 win in front of close to 48 000 home fans at Newlands after Willem de Waal and Jaques-Louis Potgieter battled it out with the boot, with De Waal winning the kicking contest by slotting the one extra penalty.
"I'm very happy and pleased with the four points because in the past, we normally lost close games like this," said WP coach Allister Coetzee.
"You couldn't get a tougher Currie Cup match than this - in the week we predicted it would be like a Test and it was exactly that," he added.
The brutal nature of the match took its toll as both sides have injury concerns, with the Bulls looking to be worse off. Fullback Zane Kirchner twisted his knee, ruling him out of this coming weekends Springbok test against the All Blacks.
Before the injury came about, Kirchner was in the thick of it as you can see in this clip, making a huge hit then taking one later in the game from Frikkie Welsh.
There were one or two illegal or late tackles, that were penalised, and then there was a fantastic tackle from Province eigthman Duane Vermeulen as he knocked back big Juandre Kruger, who northern hemisphere fans will know well from his time with Northampton Saints in England.
Province remain unbeaten with six wins in a row and top the table at 27 points, whilethe Sharks are one behind on 26. Those two sides meet this coming weekend in what should be another classic Currie Cup match up.
Time:
02:56
Song:
Pull me back by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
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