Western Province continued with their superb form in the Currie Cup when they claimed a 38-12 win over Griquas at Newlands on Saturday.
The home side were full value for their win as they were the dominant side for most of this match, outscoring the men from Kimberley by six tries to two with Sergeal Petersen leading the way with a brace.
Western Province made a terrific start and two minutes into the match Josh Stander scored the opening try when he gathered a pass from Herschel Jantjies close to Griquas’ tryline after Petersen and Damian Willemse did well in the build up.
Stander added the extras but Griquas were soon on the attack inside WP’s 22 although the home side did well to keep them at bay with a solid defensive effort. WP soon regained the initiative and in the 15th minute Petersen crossed the whitewash in spectacular fashion after trading passes with Jantjies.
The home side continued to dominate and tries from Jantjies and Juarno Augustus followed with Stander maintaining his perfect record off the kicking tee which meant Province held a 28-0 lead after 25 minutes.
Seven mintues later, Petersen pounced on a defensive error from Enver Brandt before gathering the ball inside Griquas’ 22. He still had work to do but did well to stab a grubber kick through before diving on the ball behind the visitors’ tryline.
Three minutes later, Andre Swarts intercepted a wayward pass from Stander inside Griquas’ 22 and when the cover defence closed in he got a pass out to Kyle Steyn, who crossed for the visitors’ first try.
George Whitehead slotted the conversion which meant the teams changed sides with the home side holding a comfortable 33-7 lead at half-time.
Griquas were more competitive during the second-half although they were dealt a blow in the 44th minute when Conway Pretorius was sent to the sin-bin for a late and dangerous hit on Willemse.
Despite their numerical advantage, Western Province could not extend their lead during Pretorius’ stint on the sidelines and it was the visitors who scored the opening points of the half when AJ Coertzen touched down in the right-hand corner in the 58th minute.
Three minutes later, the home side struck back when Willemse delivered a beautiful long pass to JJ Engelbrecht, who beat a couple of defenders before crossing for WP’s sixth try.
With the game in the bag, WP took their foot off the pedal and although Griquas spent most of the game’s closing stages on the attack, they could not breach the home side’s defence again.
The scorers:
For Western Province:
Tries: Stander, Petersen 2, Jantjies, Augustus, Engelbrecht
Cons: Stander 4
For Griquas:
Tries: Steyn, Coertzen
Con: Whitehead
Yellow Card: Pretorius
Western Province: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Dan Kriel, 11 JJ Engelbrecht, 10 Josh Stander, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Juarno Augustus, 7 Kobus van Dyk, 6 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 5 Chris van Zyl (c), 4 Salmaan Moerat, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ali Vermaak
Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Caylib Oosthuizen, 18 Michael Kumbirai, 19 Ernst van Rhyn, 20 Justin Phillips, 21 Dan du Plessis, 22 Dillyn Leyds
Griquas: 15 AJ Coertzen, 14 Ederies Arendse, 13 Kyle Steyn (c), 12 Andre Swarts, 11 Enver Brandt, 10 George Whitehead, 9 Zak Burger, 8 Conway Pretorius, 7 Sias Koen, 6 Eital Bredenkamp, 5 Pieter Jansen van Vuren, 4 FP Pelser, 3 Nicolaas Oosthuizen, 2 Khwezi Mkhafu, 1 Devon Martinus
Replacements: 16 AJ le Roux, 17 Liam Hendricks, 18 Ewald van der Westhuizen, 19 Sintu Manjezi, 20 Stephan Janse van Rensburg, 21 Wendal Wehr, 22 Christopher Bosch
Referee: AJ Jacobs
Assistant referees: Jaco Pretorius, Ruhan Meiring
Television match official: Joey Klaaste-Salmans