Review: Bulls Win Rugby IPT

The 15-woman code rugby season has drawn to an emphatic close for the Blue Bulls last Saturday, who walked away with SA Rugby’s Women’s Inter-Provincial cup for a fourth consecutive year, handing Western Province a comprehensive 69-13 beating at Loftus.

Speaking to gsport … for Girls!, Manager: Amateur Rugby Operations Andre Both was happy to have the silverware securely back in the Blue Bulls cupboard.

“Our star performers no. 13 centre and team captain lead the teams’ strategy for the match very well,” said Both. “After a narrow 30-26 away victory in the pool stage, we expected a stronger game from WP.

“We did not expect to win by such a large margin,” Both told gsport, “but we’ve consistently come away with big wins throughout the year, with one exception.”

“We came up with nerves”, conceded Western Province coach Petro Meyer. “We knew we had to approach the game, not as a final, just as another game.

“But the nerves, the hot weather (that we’re unaccustomed to), and a few lucky decisions for the Bull all added up,” Meyer told gsport.

“My best players (in the final) were Ita van Niekerk (wing), who has been prolific throughout this year’s season, and captain Gloria Sullivan (lock) also played a good game.

“Those two, plus Anna Marie Cellei (fly-off), Dinah Zweni (8th man) and Chantel Siekers, they could play for the Springboks any day,” said an enthusiastic Meyer.

On the Bull’s success rate of eleven tries to two stats, Meyer lamented a combination of various factors that inhibited WP’s play.

“We’ve never played so bad throughout season, we didn’t tackle well… After 10 minutes, the team was tired, several had complained of allergies the night before, and only three team members had played in Pretoria before…

“I had to go buy Coke for the players at half-time, trying to get their sugar levels up (for the second half),” said Meyer.

On the Blue Bull’s progress as a unit, Both was quick to acknowledge a big pool of emerging talent, with an encouraging number of quality black players rising through the ranks.

“Unfortunately we weren’t able to field many of them on Saturday due to injuries, but we’re looking forward to a strong 2007,” said Both.

“Another factor in our favour was a small but vocal support crowd of about 200,” Both continued, saying that the vast majority of them had supported the home team.

Both was quick to point towards player fitness as the key ingredient in their win; “Altitude, no, I don’t think so,” Both told gsport.

“It’s really just a matter of player conditioning, our team was in quite a bit better condition than WP.”

Both team representatives gave match referee Kim Smit a qualified thumbs-up as an emerging referee: “For a ref without much experience,” said Both, “I think she did pretty well.”

“This is the second time that she’s blown a game of ours,” said Meyer. “Yes I’d say that there were a few things going on that the ref didn’t pick up, lucky for the Bulls…”

“The first time she refereed one of our game was against Natal, where we thought she was very good. But even Louis Koen agreed that her refereeing on Saturday was not of the best quality.”

After Saturday’s final, the game signals the end of the rugby season for the girls, other than for those players who will contest the women’s seven-a-side tournament.

gsport was interested to find out what the coaching staff had to say about off-season training.

“As far as fitness and strategy is concerned,” commented Both, “The coach and other clubs will have a strategy in place, it’s a normal thing for the women to do conditioning throughout the season.”

“Of course its very difficult in some cases,” added Meyer. Most women players are there for the love of the game, and keeping fit places a great burden on them, with few available hours after taking care of families, job obligations.

“Next year is my turn,” warned Meyer as our interview ended, “The Bulls have won again this year, but next year is mine!”