Pumas bounce back to beat Griquas
The Pumas bounced back from their big defeat to the Cheetahs last week to claim a crucial 27-21 win over Griquas in Kimberley.
It was a second consecutive defeat for Griquas, who again ran out of gas when they needed to step up.
The Pumas took a deserved 17-11 halftime lead, which could have been more if the Griquas hadn’t stolen a late first-half try by Victor Sekekete.
The hosts took an early lead through a George Whitehead penalty and through lively scrumhalf Zak Burger asked plenty of questions.
Organised defensively
The Pumas, though, were organised defensively and weren’t breached until the end of the first half. Eddie Fouche’s defensive organisation from flyhalf had plenty to do with this, but Devon Williams at fullback made sure the Pumas played rugby in the right areas of the field.
And when they played in the right areas, they came back with points in the form of two tries through scrumhalf Ginter Smuts and rightwing Neil Maritz.
Smuts wormed over from close range in the 20th minute after a tap penalty and Maritz’s long-range effort to exploit an overlap in the 37th minute gave the Pumas a 17-6 lead.
Whitehead had added a 24th-minute penalty, but Sekekete’s try from a rolling maul cut the deficit to six points.
Fouche’s kicking accuracy made the difference as he didn’t miss any kicks and scored 12 points. Whitehead (eight points) earlier missed a penalty and conversion.
Thosemissed points proved crucialwhen replacement lock Adre Smith crossed from a rolling maul on the hour.
The conversion narrowed the gap to 2018, but Griquas, who dominated the scrums, but were terrible in the lineouts, weren’t able to press home the advantage.
When the Pumas got into the Griquas half they looked dangerous and when Williams was on the end of two excellent offloads from Fouche and replacement loose forward Phumzile Maqondwana in the 71st minute, the Pumas held a nine-point lead.
What let the Pumas down was sloppy work at the breakdown where they were unable to press home lineout advantages.
Whitehead narrowed the gap to six points with a 74th-minute penalty.