Griquas edge Province in try festival

Griquas ............................................................. 44

Western Province ............................................ 34

(Half time 17-15)

IF THERE was one thing clearer than Griquas’ ability to produce a stunning display of running rugby, it was that Western Province will really need to work on converting their chances into points.

That, and the fact that their error rate is also something that needs to be reduced – quickly. In a thrilling five-tries-a-piece encounter in Kimberley, Province had more possession than the hosts, and they also visited the opposition’s red zone 15 times as opposed to Griquas’ seven. But it was the hosts that obviously made better use of their opportunities to secure their first win in four games and move to fourth on the Currie Cup log, while Province slipped to sixth.

Province made just too many unforced errors in the first half, including tactical ones, while their defensive weaknesses were also cruelly exposed in the build-up to Griquas’ first two tries as they shockingly slipped a number of one-on-one tackles.

A perfect example of that was when former Western Province man and prop Liam Hendricks showed huge power and good footwork to brush off a couple of WP defenders to get the first try of the match, and we also saw it when the hosts again made full use of their numerical advantage to run in another try through wing Ederies Arendse.

But those tries didn’t just show WP’s defensive lapses, it also served as reward for Griquas, who did well to keep the ball alive and kept the pace of the game up.

And, of course, the fact that Province were given two yellow cards in the match didn’t help them either (they let in two tries during scrumhalf Dewaldt Duvenage’s sinbin spell), and it again showed that their discipline is also something that could do with some checking. It wasn’t all bad for the visitors, though. There were some nice touches by Province, like Seabelo Senatla’s stunning line to put WP in the lead for the first time with their third try, or flyhalf Kurt Coleman getting the bonus-point after selling a top dummy and pacing through to score. Fullback SP Marais also added to those attractive touches with a line-breaking run to score, and after a much-improved period in the first half, Province moved the ball around nicely and a beautiful skip-pass by Coleman to wing Bjorn Basson out wide set him up for their second try.

POINTS SCORERS

Griquas: Tries: Liam Hendricks, Ederies Arendse, Renier Botha, Tiaan Dorfling, Wendel Wehr. Conversions: Andre Swarts (5) Penalties: Swarts, George Whitehead (2) WP: Tries: Nizaam Carr, Bjorn Basson, Seabelo Senatla, Kurt Coleman, SP Marais Conversions: Kurt Coleman (2), Damian Willemse Penalties: Willemse Yellow cards: Dewaldt Duvenage, SP Marais