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Western Province beat Griquas 34-17 to strengthen their bid for a semifinal at home in the Currie Cup.
Currie Cup: Western Province 34-17 Griquas – match report
Western Province started the match eager to rack up five points, but soon realized they would make them sweat on a hot St. Stephen’s Day in Cape Town.
The home team started well by rejecting some previous penalties that showed their intention to score attempts. They were driving from five outs and Bongi Mbonambi arrived with the ball. Tim Swiel made it 7-0 off the tee.
A slightly aimless kicking game prevented Western Province from playing the game where they wanted.
Western Province would drop Griquas from fifty meters for his second attempt and the TMO ruled that a suspicious pass to Dan Du Plessis did not advance. Du Plessis had shown a great pace to launch himself towards the try line after breaking through the Griquas defense.
Eduan Keyter put Griquas on the board after fluid movement on the visitors’ baseline, with Berton Klaasen pushing him away.
At halftime, Western Province led 17-7.
Second half
The game opened a bit in the second half as the shadows lengthened on Newlands field.
Mbonambi would once again score first and again after a maul, this time breaking and coming off the line to score his team’s third.
Western Province was not as accurate in the middle of their opponents as they would have liked, but they did get the touch of the green, especially in preparation for their fourth attempt. Juarno Augustus had Gideon van der Merwe steal the ball from him, but Griquas’ winger blew the ball up to try and complete the strip, allowing Jaco Coetzee to grab it and put WP in bonus point territory.
Once, Western Province got the buffer from another attempt courtesy of Chad Solomon, who stepped closer as the hosts drove another maul into the red zone.
Griquas mounted a late concerted effort and was ultimately rewarded with an attempted consolation from Sibabalo Qoma.
Teams
Western Province: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Dan du Plessis, 12 Rikus Pretorius, 11 Angelo Davids, 10 Tim Swiel, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Juarno Augustus, 7 Johan du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Chris van Zyl, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Steven Kitshoff. Subs (from): 16 Chad Solomon, 17 Kwenzo Blose, 18 Sazi Sandi, 19 David Meihuizen, 20 Jaco Coetzee, 21 Paul de Wet, 22 Ruhan Nel, 23 Tristan Leyds, 24 Ernst van Rhyn, 25 Chris Schreuder, 26 Leolin Zas .
Griquas – 15 James Verity-Amm, 14 Eduan Keyter, 13 Berton Klaasen, 12 Andre Swarts, 11 Enver Brandt, 10 Tinus de Beer, 9 Zak Burger (captain), 8 Johan Momsen, 7 Stefan Willemse, 6 Gideon van der Merwe, 5 Cameron Lindsay, 4 Adre Smith, 3 John-Roy Jenkinson, 2 Alandre van Rooyen, 1 Andrew Beerwinkel. Subs – from: 16 Hendrick Luus, 17 Nqobisizwe Mxoli, 18 Tijde Visser, 19 Ewan Coetzee, 20 Sibabalo Qoma, 21 Cyril Velleman, 22 Ashlon Davids, 23 Daniel Kasende, 24 Bandisa Ndlovu, 25 Raegan Oranje.
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