Province too smart at home for tricky and gutsy Griquas
FOR the better part of an hour it looked like Griquas would claim a famous Currie Cup victory in Cape Town, but Western Province rallied in the final quarter to secure a needed win.
It ended a two-match losing streak for the home team and kept them on track for a semifinal place while Griquas are still winless after five rounds.
Trailing 13-15 going into the final 20 minutes, the home team found an extra gear to score two tries to save some blushes and ease mounting pressure.
Flank Rynhardt Elstadt, centre Jaco Taute and replacement flyhalf Rob du Preez scored late tries to seal the win and a bonus point. But the performance was riddled with mistakes and the home team struggled in the setpiece as well as at the breakdown.
The difference though was that Western Province possess more game-breakers such as wingers Seabelo Senatla and Dillyn Leyds and fullback Cheslin Kolbe. That trio were at the heart of their ability to switch defence into attack from deep positions.
The home team looked to flyhalf Kurt Coleman to give them the attacking impetus they had lacked in previous weeks, but it never materialised.
Coleman made a lot of passes but in terms of getting his side over the advantage line, he didn’t do it. That was partly down to the visitors’ organised defence and also partly down to a mindset of all-out attack, which ignored the old tenet of “earning the right to go wide”.
Western Province had more of the ball but struggled at the breakdown again. Griquas were adept at slowing the ball, which increased the need for a flyhalf to make better decisions. Coleman appeared to be playing to a script and was going to stick to it no matter what was unfolding. Kolbe was more of a threat, injecting himself into the game regularly. But even he was buttoned up for the most part.
The opening try of the match though came from a lovely piece of interplay between scrumhalf Nic Groom, Kolbe and Taute. The trio made 50 metres down the touchline before Groom scored in the corner.
Griquas were down to 14 men at that stage with No8 Carel Greeff in the sin-bin for a dangerous tackle on opposite number Nizaam Carr. It was the only time Griquas’ defence appeared flustered in the first half.
But even in Greeff’s absence Griquas survived and thrived, adding six points from two Clinton Swart penalties to add to his earlier effort.
Swart narrowed the deficit to just one point immediately after the break and that seemed to momentarily suck some of the confidence out of the home team.
The visitors hit the front with Swart’s fifth penalty in the 56th minute and it looked like an upset was on the cards until the home team snuffed it out with 20 minutes of excellence.