Makazole Mapimpi scored an 85th-minute hat-trick try to give the Free State Cheetahs a 41-40 win against the Blue Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday. SIMON BORCHARDT reports.

The Bulls had defended heroically after the full-time hooter as the Currie Cup champions launched wave after wave of attack. But the pressure eventually told when, after Free State had won another 5m lineout, they attacked down the blindside and Mapimpi scored in the left-hand corner.

The five log points take the Cheetahs back to the top of the Currie Cup log after six rounds, one ahead of the Sharks, while the two log points picked up by the Bulls take them past Griquas into fourth spot.

This was yet another high-scoring Currie Cup match in which attack seemed to matter more to both teams than defence.

Tony Jantjies opened the scoring with an early penalty for the Bulls. Opposite number Ryno Eksteen botched his first attempt at goal, but made no mistake with his second.

The hosts hit the front again in the 17th minute when a delayed pass from Warrick Gelant drew Sergeal Petersen and put Dries Swanepoel away for the first try. Jantjies’ conversion was charged down by Petersen.

The Cheetahs responded almost immediately when they forced a turnover at the breakdown and Mapimpi raced away to score a 40m converted try.

The to-and-fro nature of the game continued when Piet van Zyl took a quick penalty tap and got to within 6m of the Free State tryline. Two rucks later, and another perfectly-timed pass from Gelant put Jantjies through a gap between two defenders and over for a seven-pointer.

That was followed by a relentless period of pressure from the Cheetahs. Gerhard Olivier was held up over the tryline after two good runs by Petersen, and after two attacking 5m scrums, Jamba Ulengo was yellow-carded for a cynical ruck infringement. Free State opted to scrum again, and this time Jasper Wiese went over for a converted try.

Two Jantjies penalties gave the Bulls a 21-17 lead at the break, but they would also have to play the first 10 minutes of the second half with 14 men after Shaun Adendorff was yellow-carded on the stroke of half-time for a deliberate knockdown from an offside position.

The Cheetahs made their numerical advantage count with two converted tries early in the second half. First, Mapimpi chased down Zee Mkhabela’s grubber into the corner and then Francois Venter ran a good line off Mkhabela’s pass to dot down under the posts.

But the Bulls hit back with two tries from Ulengo and Gelant, the second of which came after Adendorff had returned to the field, to edge ahead 33-31 after 54 minutes. The Cheetahs then suffered another blow when Paul Schoeman was sin-binned for not rolling away at a ruck.

The Bulls didn’t score any points while was off, though, with Jantjies missing a penalty, and only a brilliant cover tackle from Ulengo prevented Mapimpi from getting his hat-trick for the 14-man Cheetahs.

The hosts did extend their lead to 40-31 with 10 minutes to go, when the Cheetahs tried to run the ball out from behind their tryline and Ulengo ripped the ball off Clayton Blommetjies to score. The Cheetahs responded with their fifth try, through Petersen, although Blommetjies’ conversion went wide. The fullback then kicked a penalty directly into touch with five minutes to go.

But the Cheetahs finished the match on the attack, and were rewarded with Mapimpi’s match-winning score in the left-hand corner.

Blue Bulls – Tries: Dries Swanepoel, Tony Jantjies, Jamba Ulengo (2), Warrick Gelant. Conversions: Jantjies (3). Penalties: Jantjies (3).
Free State Cheetahs – Tries: Makazole Mapimpi (3), Jasper Wiese, Francois Venter, Sergeal Petersen. Conversions: Ryno Eksteen (4). Penalty: Eksteen.

Blue Bulls – 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Kefentse Mahlo, 13 Dries Swanepoel, 12 Burger Odendaal (c), 11 Jamba Ulengo, 10 Tony Jantjies, 9 Piet van Zyl, 8 Nic de Jager, 7 Abongile Nonkontwana, 6 Shaun Adendorff, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Irne Herbst, 3 Conraad van Vuuren, 2 Jan-Henning Campher, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Subs: 16 Johan Grobbelaar, 17 Dayan van der Westhuisen, 18 Clyde Davids, 19 Jano Venter, 20 André Warner, 21 Joshua Stander, 22 JT Jackson.

Free State Cheetahs – 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Francois Venter (c), 12 William Small-Smith, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Ryno Eksteen, 9 Zee Mkhabela, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Oupa Mohoje, 6 Gerhard Olivier, 5 Rynier Bernardo, 4 Armand Koster, 3 Tom Botha, 2 Jacques du Toit, 1 Ox Nche.
Subs: 16 Erich de Jager, 17 Joseph Dweba, 18 Dennis Visser, 19 Paul Schoeman, 20 Juan-Philip Smith, 21 Ali Mgijima, 22 Rosco Speckman.

Photo: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix