Masuku sees Cheetahs to victory but Hendricks helps 14-man Bulls sneak into Currie Cup semis

Saturday’s Morne Steyn Loftus farewell turned into the Siya Masuku show instead.

Steyn might not have had the dream home send-off the Springbok flyhalf deserved but his Blue Bulls did enough to make the Currie Cup semi-finals despite a 31-27 defeat to the Free State Cheetahs.

The Bulls scored four tries and lost by a margin of less than seven points to grab two bonus points from the contest.

RECAP | Cheetahs 31-27 Bulls 

It meant Jake White’s men finished on 38 log points, which were out of reach for Western Province, who were on 32 before their clash with their Sharks in Cape Town on Saturday.

With the win, the Cheetahs gave themselves a good shot at topping the overall log, pending the outcome at Cape Town Stadium.

The Bulls got on the board as early as the fifth minute when wing Cornal Hendricks touched down in the right side corner after good hands from Marcell Coetzee and Stedman Gans in the lead up.

Two minutes later, centre Harold Vorster went over for the Bulls’ second score after sloppy Cheetahs passing allowed David Kriel to pounce on the loose ball and feed his centre to over untroubled.

Barely five minutes passed and then a third Bulls try registered when scrumhalf Embrose Papier outpaced the Cheetahs defence to score under the sticks. Things were going swimmingly for the hosts, who didn’t see any danger signs ahead.

The Cheetahs finally let it be known that they arrived in Pretoria after 18 minutes when No 13 David Brits used his upper body strength to corkscrew through two tacklers and score their first try.

The visitors came close through their forwards after a neat lineout move that took hooker Marnus van der Merwe to within a blade of grass from dotting down but failed to cross the white line.

But the Cheetahs