Blue Bulls crowned unofficial champions of Grant Khomo Week
The Blue Bulls dethroned the Free State in the main event of this year’s Grant Khomo week, claiming the unofficial champion’s status with a 20-12 victory after a dramatic series of events saw the Western Province be demoted to the penultimate game against the Lions for not adhering to transformation targets in their 25-18 victory over the Bulls on Wednesday.
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Free State were unable to repeat the success of last year when they beat the Sharks 39-18 in Kimberley.
The Bloemfontein-based team started the game strong, with the big tighthead prop from Grey College, JG Badenhorst, opening the scoring with a try within the first two minutes.
Albert Smit (flanker), from Affies, levelled the scores with a try for the Bulls twenty minutes later, but Free State controlled the first half of the game, spending most of it in the Bulls’ 22m area and they were rewarded when their speedster winger from Grey College, Siyabonga Kenny, scored to take them into the break with a 12-5 lead.
The Bulls galvanized in the second half and scored 15 unanswered points to upset the Free State team with the Affies duo, Christiaan de Wet (lock) and Nicolaas Grobler (centre), both getting over the line.
Though the playing conditions were definitely challenging, and the Bulls did excellently to compete at the rucks and disrupt the Free State’s flow, the team in orange will be very critical of the chances they missed and the errors they made which ultimately cost them the game.
Another Affies student, Ruben Groenewald (flyhalf), has been a standout player for the Bulls all week, and he played a central role in their victory again today.
He was able to manage all the games expertly with his kicking out of hand and scored 24 points off the tee throughout the week.
While they are not unbeaten, there can be no question that the Blue Bulls have been involved in three of the toughest battles this week. They edged the Sharks on the first day by 31-27, lost to the Western Province by seven points on the second day and now have the bragging rights after another difficult battle against one of the favourites coming into the tournament, where they beat the Free State by eight points in the finale.
For the Free State, Ethan Adams, the centre from Grey College, looked dangerous again with ball in hand, but the Blue Bulls’ defense did well to limit his involvement in this game.
His schoolmates, the two wingers, Kenny and Lamla Mgedezi, both also looked promising when they were on the attack.
Despite not featuring in the main game, Western Province will be happy with their performance at the festival, going unbeaten after getting through Boland (41-12), the Blue Bulls (25-18) and finally the Lions (10-5).
The Western Province XV and the Eastern Province are the two other teams who won all of their matches.
The Western Province XV beat the Free State XV (50-3), the Pumas (38-7) and the Sharks (25-8) while the Eastern Province team reckoned with the Border Country District team (26-14), Border (34-17) and finally Boland (15-13).
Scorers:
Blue Bulls 20 (5) – Tries: Albert Smit, Christiaan de Wet, Nicolaas Grobler. Conversion: Ruben Groenewald. Penalty: Groenewald. Free State 12 (12) – Tries: JG Badenhorst, Siyabonga Kenny. Conversion: Thristan Maree.
Western Province 10 (3) – Try: Jayden Britz. Conversion: Francois van der Merwe. Penalty: Van der Merwe. Lions 5 (0) – Try: Rio Tshambalanga.
Other results: Free State XV 28, Border Country District 7; Valke 6, Griffons 0.
