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Griqua heat too much for WP

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James Verity-Amm scored two tries against Western Province on Sunday. File Picture: Christiaan Kotze, BackpagePix

An excellent onslaught in the second half by Griquas secured them a convincing bonus point win over Western Province on Sunday.

THE TAFEL Lager Griquas turned up the intensity in Kimberley on Sunday to hammer Western Province 46-25 in the penultimate round of the Currie Cup.

The hosts, who had slipped down the log standings with a number of disappointing results against the Lions, Bulls and Cheetahs managed to keep their play-off hopes alive with this bonus-point win over the Cape team.

While Griquas will breathe a sigh of relief, it does mean that for Province, however, their final regular-season game is now an absolute must-win if they are to have any hopes of making the play-offs.

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Griquas scored three first-half tries through Gideon van der Merwe, Hanru Sirgel and Adre Smith. George Whitehead was at his accurate best adding three conversions and a penalty to give them a 25-18 lead at the break.

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It was an error-strewn affair, with both sides taking advantage of the other’s mistakes and the visitors managed two tries of their own in the opening half, with Sergeal Petersen and Ruhan Nel scoring. But Province could just not stand up to the Peacock Blues’ – who were decked out in pink on Sunday – intensity.

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An excellent onslaught in the second half by Griquas secured them a convincing bonus point win. Griquas scored six tries to the three tries of Province who left Kimberley without a bonus point and with their tails between their legs.

It is no small thing that this is the second time this season that Griquas had the better of Western Province. In the opening encounter Griquas managed a 30-28 win in Cape Town – the first win over WP in Cape Town in 110 years.

The confidence shown by the Griquas team in taking tap penalties near the Province line and then actually scoring, showed how the side has developed this season. When was the last time Griquas managed to beat Western Province twice in one season?

One had reservations about the team’s ability to win on Sunday after the setbacks in the past few weeks, but the team showed character and won convincingly in the end.

Jonathan Franke and Chris Hollis at centre tackled like demons and the half-backs controlled the game well. Ashlon Davids at fullback has silky skills and has very good hands. But, as is always the case, the forwards managed to lay a wonderful foundation for the win.

A happy Griquas coach Scott Mathie told the DFA that he was proud of his team following the convincing win, saying that the team had handled themselves better in this game than in their string of recent defeats.

“Last week I think we didn’t handle the big moments in the second half well,” the coach said. “But it just shows that this is a team that learns. Our game management in the second half this time was a lot better.

“We learned from last week. We handled the big moments better. Our line-out did function. So we’ve sorted out some of the things that went wrong. I am proud of how we scrummed. It shows that if your set piece goes well we’ve shown that with ball in hand we can be very dangerous,” Mathie added.

“We were able to get our ball and win our ball in attack. That allowed us to put pressure on Western Province today. That fight we’ve shown all season was there. Defensively we worked very hard for each other.”

Asked about next week’s fixtures the coach did not get ahead of himself and simply said, “Yes I am very pleased with (today’s) result and we look forward to next week.”

The win takes Griquas to third on the log, while Western Province remain in fifth spot.

Griquas next host the New Nation Pumas at Tafel Lager Park on Saturday fully aware that the Mbombela side outmuscled them 26-22 in their first encounter.

Griquas (24) 46

Tries: Van der Merwe, Sirgel, Smith, Steenkamp, Verity-Amm (2); Conversions: Whitehead (5); Penalties: Whitehead (2)

Western Province (18) 25

Tries: Petersen, Nel, Fouche; Conversions: Swiel (2) Penalties: Swiel (2)

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Additional reporting by Neville Mothlabakwe and Dave Alexander

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