Griquas stage incredible fightback to edge WP at the death
CURRIE CUP REPORT: Griquas showed their character by staging one of the Currie Cup's great comebacks to beat Western Province 43-41 in Stellenbosch on Friday.
The visitors were 7-35 down after 25 minutes before they started to claw their way back into the game.
Luther Obi was the hero for Griquas as he managed to score a try five minutes after the full-time hooter sounded to level the scores before George Whitehead added the winning points with the conversion
There was a total of 12 tries scored in the thriller at the Danie Craven Stadium.
The home side made a fast start, taking the game to the visitors from the first minute.
The first try was set up by a strong maul from the forwards, with fullback Tristan Leyds claiming a spectacular one-handed take of flyhalf Tim Swiel’s chip kick to score.
The second try saw that maul in action once again as hooker Jacques van Zyl was driven over.
Leyds was prominent in the third try, breaking the line on a counter-attack before giving it to centre Juan de Jongh who finished to put them 21-0 up after 20 minutes.
The visitors hit back with a try of their own from centre Rynhardt Jonker, but Western Province were back on the scoresheet soon afterwards as Van Zyl claimed an intercept and fed Angelo Davids who raced away to score.
The fifth try was another scintillating counter-attack, with Swiel finishing it off to make it a 28-point lead.
Griquas stayed in the contest with two tries late in the first half, but Western Province still took a commanding 35-19 lead into the break.
Western Province scored the first points of the second half with the first penalty of the match from Swiel and he added another soon afterwards to make it 41-19.
Western Province were down to 14 when prop Ali Vermaak was shown a yellow card for playing a man off the ball and Griquas scored from the resulting maul.
They used the extra man to score again, with wing Luther Obi getting outside the defence to make it 41-31 heading into the last 10 minutes.
The Kimberley side got one more maul try three minutes from the end and added to that with Obi’s second, with Whitehead’s conversion sealing the win.
Man of the match: Tristan Leyds was great on attack for Western Province, while Tim Swiel had one of his best games in a Province jersey. Luther Obi scored two tries for the visitors, which included the match-winner. However, the award goes to Griquas loose forward Hanru Sirgel, who was a monster with ball in hand.
The scorers:
For Western Province:
Tries: Leyds, Van Zyl, De Jongh, Davids, Swiel,
Cons: Swiel 5
Pens: Swiel 2
For Griquas:
Tries: Jonker, Xamlashe, Hartzenberg, Uys, Obi 2, Sirgel
Cons: Whitehead 4
Yellow card: Ali Vermaak (WP, 59' - dangerous play and playing an opponent without the ball)
Teams:
Western Province: 15 Tristan Leyds, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Mnombo Zwelendaba, 12 Juan de Jongh, 11 Angelo Davids, 10 Timothy Swiel (captain), 9 Thomas Bursey, 8 Keke Morabe, 7 Marcel Theunissen, 6 Junior Pokomela, 5 Ben-Jason Dixon, 4 Simon Miller, 3 Sazi Sandi, 2 Jacques van Zyl, 1 Ali Vermaak.
Replacements: 16 Chad Solomon, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 19 Hilton Lobberts, 20 Shaine Orderson, 21 Bobby Alexander, 22 Mambo Mkhize, 23 Ebenezer Tshimanga.
Griquas: 15 Ashlon Davids, 14 Munier Hartzenberg, 13 Sango Xamlashe, 12 Rynhardt Jonker, 11 Luther Obi, 10 Alex-Zander Du Plessis, 9 Johan Mulder, 8 Sibabalo Qoma, 7 Hanru Sirgel, 6 Niel Otto (captain), 5 Derik Pretorius, 4 Johan Retief, 3 Janu Botha, 2 Simon Westraadt,, 1 Kudzwai Dube.
Replacements: 16 Janco Uys, 17 Eddie Davids, 18 Andries Schutte, 19 Cameron Lindsay, 20 Werner Gouws, 21 Stefan Ungerer, 22 George Whitehead, 23 Christopher Hollis.
Referee: Morne Ferreira
Assistant Referees: Stephan Geldenhuys, Local
TMO: Marius Jonker
Additional source: @WP_RUGBY