Rugby Union: Strange tames Bulls

Ebbw Vale 20 Northern Bulls 13

EBBW VALE'S roller-coaster season took an upturn at Eugene Cross Park yesterday as they kept their Challenge Trophy hopes alive with a thoroughly deserved Pool B victory over the crack South African side, Northern Bulls.

The Steelmen, who had to unload some of their biggest names in a cost- cutting exercise midway through the season, also had a disastrous European Cup campaign.

However, during that tournament they sprang a major surprise when they beat the 1996 European champions, Toulouse, and yesterday they again rose to the occasion against top quality opposition.

The Toulouse victory came too late for their Euro hopes but this time the win really mattered in keeping their hopes of qualifying for the last four of the Challenge Trophy on the boil, while a second defeat all but ends the Bulls' interest in the competition.

The Bulls frequently threatened to take command but Ebbw Vale never gave an inch and when their line came under threat, they tackled as if their lives depended on it. Allied to that determination was the Bulls' generosity in giving the Ebbw Vale stand- off, Jason Strange, plenty of goalkicking practice as the South Africans repeatedly fell foul of Scottish referee Rob Dickson.

The Bulls made the better start with two penalties of their own from full-back Gavin Lawless, which sandwiched Ebbw Vale's only try of the match. That score came courtesy of scrum-half David Llewellyn's opportunism as he pounced on a charged-down clearance with the Bulls defence nowhere.

The South Africans did manage a try of their own, albeit containing what appeared to be a blatant forward pass, finished off by one of the five internationals in their line-up, the wing McNeil Hendricks.

Strange began punishing them with two penalties in the first half and then his three in the second period killed them off. His final effort, dug out of the mud from all of 45 metres, sealed the Bulls' fate.

Ebbw Vale: S Taumalolo; A Harries (D Manley, 72), C Landry, J Hawker, L Olsen; J Strange, D Llewellyn; A Phillips, R Campbell, A Metcalfe, C Billen, K Faletau, N Budgett (L Banks, 65), G Green, M Jones (capt).

Blue Bulls: G Lawless; W Meyer, M Marais, D van Schalkwyk, M Hendricks; J Benadie, L van Straaten (D de Kock, 62); L Campher, D Santon, J Le Roux, W Basson, W Boardman, J Brooks, N van der Walt, S Bekker (capt).

Referee: R Dixon (Scotland).