Cameron Hanekom will not be in action when the Springboks play Wales in London next weekend, but he sure smoothed his part for engagement against Ireland here on July 6 in this United Rugby Championship semifinal.
Hanekom helped the Bulls keep their unblemished record on home soil in semifinals over the last decade intact when they downed Irish blue blood team Leinster 25-2src in a bone-crushing clash at Loftus Stadium on Saturday.
They advanced to next weekend’s final on the back of a defensive performance from the top drawer thus marking the end of the road for Leinster in the semifinals for the third straight year.
The Bulls’ defensive set, organisation and sheer application in the tackle carried the day against a team under the defensive tutelage of former Bok coach Jacques Nienaber.
It was a tight, nervy affair in which the Bulls initially held the advantage on the scoreboard but Leinster dug deep to level things out before hosts’ right wing Sergeal Peterson struck the decisive blow when he pick-pocketed the Leinster defence from a contestable kick.
While Petersen applied the finishing touches on the scoreboard it was Hanekom that laid down an early marker for the impact he was to have on the game with turnover at
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