Province keep Currie Cup hopes alive
WESTERN Province achieved their objective of winning with a four-try bonus point to keep their slim Currie Cup semifinal hopes alive, but it was a laboured victory against a struggling team.
The Pumas were adept at spoiling and frustrating the home team for long periods of the match, but it wasn’t enough to stop them from slumping to their sixth defeat in six outings this season.
Province secured their third victory of the campaign, claiming the bonus point late in the match when lock Jan de Klerk stretched over the line with nine minutes to play.
De Klerk’s try came two minutes after wing Leolin Zas snapped up a ball close to a ruck on the Pumas tryline and darted over to score. Two tries in two minutes eased the hosts’ nerves as they earned a bonus point, but they are definitely not a Currie Cupwinning team.
Victory took Province to 18 points and up to fifth, a point behind Griquas. The two meet in Kimberley next week in what could be a semifinal decider, though the sixthplaced Golden Lions might have a say.
The Pumas didn’t look like a team that had leaked 208 points in five matches.
Province couldn’t build momentum thanks to good breakdown work from the visitors and a flow of penalties against them. As a result, it was a stuttering first-half performance in which they failed to build rhythm.
Pumas flyhalf Francois Brummer opened the scoring with a neat drop-goal in the fourth minute and added three points from a penalty in the 34th minute.
In between though, the hosts had enough territory and possession to have done more than score a paltry 10 points. Their rolling maul was effective in making metres but they continually ceded possession in good positions through ill-discipline.
Flyhalf Rob du Preez put Province on the board with a 19th-minute penalty and two minutes later, wing Werner Kok scored the only try of the stanza. No 8 Nizaam Carr linked with centre Huw Jones to create space for Kok to race into the corner.
Both teams were reduced to 14 men early in the second half as French referee Alexandre Ruiz brandished yellow cards for Pumas prop De-Jay Terblanche and Province flank Stefan Willemse. The former was binned because of repeated cynical fouls inside the 22m line, while the latter was guilty of a high tackle.
It did little to improve the quality of the match but at least there was a little more space on the field, which Jones exploited. He turned from provider to scorer after a great solo run saw him step away from scrumhalf Kevin Luiters and fullback Devon Williams to take Province halfway to their four-try target. But the excitement of the score was quelled when the Pumas struck back with a beautiful try from leftwing JP Lewis that kept the visitors in the game.
The Pumas finished strongly with tries from replacement fullback Tyler Fischer and No 8 Renaldo Bothma, but it was a case of too little, too late.