Jake White expressed his delight with Sergeal Petersen after the speedster bounced back from a half-time dressing down to send the Vodacom Bulls to the URC final.
Petersen scored a second-half brace, including the winning try, as the Vodacom Bulls claimed a 25-20 victory over a star-studded Leinster at Loftus Versfeld to secure their place in the URC’s grand final.
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An eventful game for the 29-year-old saw him yellow carded in the 20th minute after an attempted intercept inside his own 22 went wrong and he was sin-binned for an intentional knock-down.
Leinster scored the opening during the period that Petersen was off the field, but he more than made up for it, with two excellent tries in the second half
“I was very chuffed,” White said after the game. “Except for half time, when I gave him a bollocking for getting a yellow card for trying to get in between players and not making a tackle.
“I said to him, ‘You’ve got to be brave, Sergeal, you can’t run in between people’. I gave it to him. Not for any other reason than he is better than that.
“Credit to him, he made his tackles, jumped in the air, won the ball, chased. He realised that he better do his job.”
The Vodacom Bulls are set to be without Willie le Roux for Saturday’s final against Glasgow Warriors at Loftus Versfeld, after the veteran fullback was replaced injured in the second half.
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Le Roux has joined fellow World Cup-winners Canan Moodie and Kurt-Lee Arendse on the sidelines. The absence of the star trio could make Petersen – a Vodacom URC winner with the Stormers in 2022 – even more vital to the Bulls.
“I saw Canan and Kurt-Lee now. I asked them if injections and tape work,” White joked.
“The one guy who has won the URC in our team is Sergeal. So, who knows, maybe this week he’s the most important guy in our team because he will have to explain to us what it’s like to win this competition.
“We also shouldn’t underplay a guy like Devon Williams, because he was outstanding. I thought for a guy who comes in and catches all those up-and-unders. The one he should’ve caught, he knocked on and it would’ve been a try under the poles.”
Photo: Gordon Arons/Gallo Images
The post Petersen soars after half-time ‘bollocking’ appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Src: sarugbymag.co.za
