In the late evening fixture played in Buenos Aires, the Emirates Lions went down 49-35 to the Jaguares, who maintained their unbeaten home record against the Highveld team during their Vodacom Super Rugby fixture on March 24.
The DHL Stormers repelled a late Reds fightback to emerge with a 25-19 win at DHL Newlands on Saturday evening in their Vodacom Super Rugby round six match. The Cape side led 14-7 at the interval and went on to clinch back-to-back home victories.
The Vodacom Bulls and the Cell C Sharks also lost their away matches abroad on Friday morning. John Mitchell’s side went down 33-14 to the Crusaders in Christchurch while the Rebels outplayed the Cell C Sharks 46-14 in Melbourne.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old Damian Willemse continued his good form with another assured performance in the DHL Stormers number 10 jersey. He again showed very good form on attack, kicked confidently and was solid on defence.
The Cape side looked dangerous on attack and raced to an 18-0 lead at one stage thanks to tries from scrumhalf Dewald Duvenhage and prop Wilco Louw. The Reds countered with two converted tries either side of the interval to bring them within touching distance of the home team. Willemse was then on target with a difficult conversion after Raymond Rhule dotted down a beautifully weighted kick by Craig Berry.
The Reds came storming back with a strong passage of play which resulted in a converted try by wing Filipo Daugunu. The Cape side, however, held their nerve to clinch a third home triumph.
Against the Emirates Lions, the Jaguares started at a fast pace and controlled the match to eventually score six tries, while flyhalf Nicolas Sanchez kicked five conversions and three penalties for a contribution of 19 points. Replacement hooker Malcolm Marx grabbed two of the Emirates Lions’ five tries and flyhalf Elton Jantjies slotted all five conversions.
With one victory out of five matches in this year’s Vodacom Super Rugby competition, Vodacom Bulls coach John Mitchell is well aware of the challenge they face back on home soil and preparing for their next clash with the Stormers this weekend said Michael Vlismas.
Photo: Gordon Arons/Gallo Images.
After beating the Hurricanes in their opening match at Loftus Versfeld, the Bulls lost to the Lions at home and were then beaten by the Reds, Chiefs and finally the Crusaders on tour.
“We’re now one for five and clearly we want to be better than that,” said Mitchell.
“We’ve got to get a couple of things sorted in terms of getting the conversion out of our driving maul.”
But Mitchell believes the tour to Australia and New Zealand also revealed a lot of positives.
“The ethic and the attitude of the players has been outstanding. We know where we are and we know where we want to get to. We’ve just got to fill that gap.
“As a group, we’ve taken a lot out of this trip. Ultimately we can’t allow frustration to get to us. We’ve got to go a bit more bone deep in our preparation. And I’ve got to keep being patient with this group and make sure we’ve got the right people within the 23 doing the job.”
The Rebels bounced back from their loss last week against the Waratahs by outplaying the Cell C Sharks for a 46-15 victory. The Melbourne side scored six tries and the visitors from Durban replied with two by Lwazi Mvovo and Marius Louw.
So after six rounds, the Emirates Lions are still atop of the South African Conference despite their loss in Argentina. They have 19 points from six matches and have six points more than the second-placed DHL Stormers (13). The Cell C Sharks remain on nine points while the Jaguares (8) moved above the Vodacom Bulls (5) into the fourth spot.
The Crusaders moved to the top of the New Zealand Conference on 15 points and in the Australian Conference, the Rebels are the pacesetters on 20 points.
Other Round 6 results of the weekend:
Saturday:
Sunwolves 10, Chiefs 61
Hurricanes 29, Highlanders 12
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