The Suzuki Griquas dashed the Sanlam Boland Kavaliers’ Carling Currie Cup semifinal hopes with a ruthless 48-17 (halftime 19-17) victory at Boland Stadium, Wellington, on Sunday to finish top of the log after the completion of the group stages.
The defending champions flexed their muscles with a physically dominant second-half shutout – they won it 29-0 and stacked up 36 unanswered points after leading by just two at the break – that will have put a smile on the face of head coach Pieter Bergh ahead of the knockout stages in a week’s time.
For Hawies Fourie’s outgunned Kavaliers, it was a case of so near yet so far yet again: they produced an error-strewn performance when accuracy and concentration for 80 minutes was a minimum requirement to stand any chance of upsetting the champions.
The tale of the tape will show that the Bolanders’ campaign ultimately ran out of steam on a hot afternoon in the Boland capital, after they won their opening two matches and beat the Lions on the road in round five to give their supporters hope that this would be their year.
The result means that next weekend’s semifinals of the world’s oldest provincial rugby competition will see Griquas host the fourth-placed Fidelity ADT Lions in Kimberley, while the Airlink Pumas, who ended third, will travel to Bloemfontein to do battle with the second-placed Toyota Cheetahs.
TENSE ENCOUNTER
In a tense match with so much at stake, it was the home side, needing a win to overtake the Lions and so reach the last four, who got the scoreboard rolling when flyhalf Ashlon Davids kicked a third-minute penalty.
The champions struck back five minutes later when flanker Marco de Witt celebrated his 50th cap with a tenacious try, the 24-year-old busting through several would-be tacklers following a strong Griquas rolling maul close to the home team’s tryline.
Flyhalf Liam Koen nailed the touchline conversion to make it 7-3, but things went from bad to worse for the Kavaliers when a former Bolander, right wing Dylan Maart, dived over following a great cross-kick from Koen.
Adding insult to injury, referee Griffin Colby had by this time lost patience with the hosts’ repeated infringements and sent hooker Joshua Eras to the sin bin.
The Bolanders, not for the first time this season, hung in when they threatened to be overrun by a physical Griquas pack, and they were rewarded for their bravery when flanker Sibusiso Sangweni crashed over on the half-hour following a strong breakaway from the returning Eras. Davids added the extras to reduce the deficit to just two points.
Home-town hero Jayden Bantom then had the large crowd on their feet when he sliced through in the 37th minute to help Boland regain the lead, which became five points with Davids’ second successful conversion.
But it was the visitors who had the final say on the hooter, hooker Tiaan Lange going over from a rolling maul close to the Kavaliers’ line and Koen nailing the tricky conversion to give his side a slender halftime lead.
COSTLY HANDLING ERRORS
The second half began in disastrous fashion for Boland when try-scorer Bantom made a hash of a goal-line dropout – his kick hardly crossed the tryline, let alone carried the required five metres – handing Griquas prime position in the shadow of the posts for a five-metre scrum, which eventually led to No 8, Carl Els, scoring a pushover try on 45 minutes with the home side in reverse gear.
Koen converted to extend Griquas’ lead to nine points.
The Kavaliers, seeing their semifinal hopes fading away before their eyes, went on the offensive but they were undone by costly handling errors at crucial stages.
Fullback Stefan Coetzee began nailing the Bolanders’ coffin shut as early as the 50th minute when he glided over for Koen to convert and put the visitors just about out of sight.
Flanker Lourens Oosthuizen rubbed further salt in the Winelanders’ wounds with his side’s sixth try after 55 minutes when he galloped in from a lineout drive following the sin-binning of inside centre Jurick Lewis.
That man Koen was yet again on target, his left-footed fades bisecting the uprights for a fifth time.
Left wing Gurshwin Wehr’s score in the left-hand corner in the closing stages was the cherry on top of a bruising display from the title-holders, who look to have timed their assault on back-to-back titles to perfection.
SCORERS:
SANLAM BOLAND KAVALIERS 17 – Tries: Sibusiso Sangweni, Jayden Bantom; Conversions: Ashlon Davids (2); Penalty: Davids.
SUZUKI GRIQUAS 48 – Tries: Marco de Witt, Dylan Maart, Tiaan Lange, Carl Els, Stefan Coetzee, Lourens Oosthuizen, Gurshwin Wehr; Conversions: Liam Koen (5); Penalty: George Whitehead