Griquas thump WP, close in on semis
GRIQUAS produced a superb physical display to thump Western Province 46-25 (24-18) in Kimberley yesterday in the penultimate round of the Currie Cup.
The hosts kept their play-off hopes alive with the bonus-point win over John Dobson’s side, whose final regular-season game against the in-form Sharks in Durban on Saturday is now a must-win.
Griquas scored three first-half tries through Gideon van der Merwe, Hanru Sirgel and Adre Smith, with flyhalf George Whitehead adding three conversions and a penalty.
The visitors bagged two tries in the first half, with Sergeal Petersen and Ruhan Nel crossing over.
It was an error-strewn affair in the Northern Cape, with both sides exploiting the other’s mistakes.
While the digits were fairly tight in the first half, Griquas took control as half-time approached, with their forwards dominating their Cape counterparts.
WP had a poor start to the second half, with Griquas scoring from a fivemetre scrum after the kick-off.
They extended their lead to 36-15 with a quarter of the game left after tries by Ruan Steenkamp and James VerityAmm.
WP ran in a try with 15 minutes to go, but it proved to be nothing more than a consolation as Griquas hit back and scored 10 unanswered points in the last 10 minutes.
Dobson lamented their performance. “It was a very disappointing day for us, especially not getting the points that we needed,” he said. “We’re still in the competition, we just need to make sure that we get five points in Durban, we have a reasonable recent record there.
“(Conceding) 21 points from restarts … that’s not a new problem. It hurt us against the Pumas. Without making excuses, coming up to Kimberley for game three in eight days and playing at one in the afternoon was always going to be tough. We stayed in the game reasonably well, I don’t think we chased the game particularly well. So there is a lot of disappointment, it was a disappointing game all-round. We have a lot to play for next week.”
The win took Griquas third, with WP fifth.