On a freezing cold and windy Saturday afternoon, the South-Western Districts Eagles managed to outplay the North West Leopards to beat them 27-21 at Outeniqua Park in George. In Kimberley, Griquas defeated the Boland Kavaliers 43-32, and Free State beat Western Province 45-13 in Bloemfontein.
In George, eight tries in all were scored, with the Leopards’ three tries from open play and four of the Eagles’ tries from forward drives. The remaining try came from an interception by the Eagles’ Ambrose Barends, who snatched the ball after Lawrence Sephaka and Nardus Lombard failed to find each other.
The Eagles, who played with the wind at their backs in the first half, could not penetrate the defence of the opposition but the forwards were dominant throughout. Both teams were heavily penalised for not staying on their feet at rucks.
The visitors were first on the score board with a try scored by flanker Jaco Bouwer. Flyhalf Corne Meyer converted for the extra two points. The Eagles responded with two tries: the first by flanker Theo Bezuidenhout and then hooker Hannes Franklin.
Just before half-time, the Leopards’ Anvor Schooney scored the best try of the day when he went over with Meyer adding the extra points. They increased their lead when Deon van Rensburg went over for a converted try.
The Eagles, trailing by 11 points, then showed their strength in the forwards when they scored a further two tries. Franklin scored his second try and Hendrik van der Nest scored the fourth try for the bonus point.
With the visitors on the attack, Barends went over for his intercept try.
Griquas beat Kavaliers
Leading 26-20 at half-time, Griquas defeated the Boland Kavaliers 43-32 in an entertaining 10-try fixture played in sunny but cold conditions at Absa Park, Kimberley, on Saturday afternoon.
Griquas, with six tries to Boland’s four, picked up their second successive five-point haul, while the Bolanders’ late-in-the-match fourth try earned them a deserved bonus point.
After Griquas had scored the opening try in the eighth minute through captain Tertius Carse, the Bolanders — taking full advantage of a 15-minute period during which the home team’s backs missed a number of tackles and the visitors played their most enterprising rugby of the match — opened up a handy 17-7 lead through converted tries scored by evergreen flyer John Daniels and full-back Renfred Dazel.
Playing his 50th match for Griquas, eighthman Heinrich Stride was then nicely up in support to score the first of his two tries during the match.
With Griquas beginning to play with much more rhythm and lots of possession, Boland left wing Jongikhaya Nokwe was yellow-carded in the 32nd minute for a professional foul, virtually on his own try line.
Griquas took full use of the one-man advantage to score further tries through hooker Hans van Dyk and a well-worked bonus-point earning effort by outside centre Lafras Uys. With Conrad Barnard spot-on with the conversions, Griquas led by six points at the break.
Stride’s 45th-minute converted try in the right-hand corner saw Griquas leading 33-20 and seemingly geared to pull away from the Bolanders. Though firmly on top, Griquas had only a Barnard penalty to show by way of further points scored during the next 20 minutes.
In the face of a determined Griquas defence, Conrad Burke’s hard-working team — in which flank Randile Julies was often prominent — managed to pull back seven points on the hour when attacking left, with the visitor’s big lock Dries van Schalkwyk diving over and flyhalf Isma-eel Dollie, who only missed one kick for posts all afternoon, doing well to convert from an acute angle.
Griquas flank Wayne van Heerden, a late replacement for Ockie van Zyl (downed by a tummy bug), crowned an excellent overall performance by throwing a dummy and then sprinting 25m down the right-hand touch line to run round and score at the Boland posts.
The Kavaliers never gave up and with eight minutes remaining ran in a well-deserved, bonus-point-earning fourth try, appropriately enough scored by hooker and captain Burke.
Though the Griquas pack was again impressive (hard-working flank Jacques Burger received the man-of-the-match award), their backs gave a patchy performance and will certainly have to up their play considerably when Griquas face the Lions at Ellis Park next weekend.
Free State victory
Free State’s Marius Joubert was prominent in his side’s 45-13 over Western Province on Saturday in Bloemfontein.
The centre showed that he is still good enough to wear the green-and-gold jersey after a fine display. Joubert tackled well and was the master mind on attack. He and fellow centre Meyer Bosman combined well in the midfield.
Joubert was named man of the match for his effort.
For Province, their captain and hooker Schalk Brits played a big game. But Brits did not have any support from his teammates, except that of lock Andries Bekker, who was next best for the visitors.
Province made too many mistakes and Free State capitalised on them.
Eighthman Darron Nell and centre winger Philip Burger also had outstanding games for the home side. — Sapa