Western Province outplay Lions in Johannesburg
CURRIE CUP REPORT: Western Province got their 2023 Currie Cup campaign off to a great start with a 44-28 bonus-point win over the Lions in Johannesburg.
The Capetonians outscored the home side by five tries to four in the match with flyhalf Kade Wolhuter contributing 19 points with the boot.
It was an entertaining start with both teams crossing the whitewash in the first 10 minutes.
First to score was WP with hooker Scarra Ntubeni crossing the trying with a powerful driving maul. Kade Wolhuter added the extra two points with the conversion.
The Lions then hit back a few minutes later when wing Boldwin Hansen was put into space out wide to run in for the reply. Vaughan Isaacs held his nerve to land a difficult conversion to level the scores.
Wolhuter then showed his class with the kicking tee when he landed a monster penalty to put his team three points ahead after 14 minutes.
The Capetonians seemed to be getting the upper hand in the physical exchanges and they were over again in the 21st minute when Marcel Theunissen crashed through the Lions' defence to run away for the score. Wolhuter made it a 10-point ball game with the conversion.
WP suffered a setback in the 23rd minute when Juan de Jongh received a yellow card for taking out a player in the air.
Not long after that, the Lions made use of the man advantage to stretch WP's defence which allowed Hansen to dive in for his second try of the game.
Isaacs produced another superb conversion to reduce WP's lead to just three points.
The see-saw nature of the game continued after that when WP found themselves over the tryline again after another driving maul. This time it was Keke Morabe who got the five-pointer.
Wolhuter restored his team's 10-point lead with the conversion in the 29th minute before making it 13 points with a penalty in the 34th minute.
WP looked well in control of the game and after some great interplay out wide, Suleiman Hartzenberg ran in for his team's fourth try.
The gap between the two teams was 20 points after Wolhuter added the extra two points with the conversion.
The flyhalf had a chance to make a 23-point lead before the break, but he pushed his long-range kick wide.
The Lions were handed a lifeline in the 51st minute when Morabe was given a yellow card for repeated infringements from the whole WP team.
However, the home side could not take advantage of the extra man as WP held firm on defence.
To rub salt in the Lions' wounds, WP scored the first points of the second half in the 64th minute with a driving maul guiding Andre-Hugo Venter to the tryline.
Wolhuter made it a 27-point margin with the conversion.
The Lions eventually got their first points of the half in the 67th minute with Raynard Roets stretching over the tryline after sustained pressure inside the WP half. Isaacs added another two points with the conversion.
With six minutes left on the clock, Wolhuter extended WP's lead with another penalty.
The Lions wanted to add some more respectability to the score and Nico Steyn helped them with that after taking a quick tap penalty and diving for the tryline.
Man of the match: The award goes to Western Province flyhalf Kade Wolhuter. He scored 19 points with the boot and he was just a general in the backline when he had the ball in his hands.
The scorers:
For Lions:
Tries: Hansen 2, Roets, Steyn
Cons: Isaacs 4
For Western Province:
Tries: Ntubeni, Theunissen, Morabe, Hartzenberg, Venter
Cons: Wolhuter 5
Pens: Wolhuter 3
Yellow cards: (Juan de Jongh, 23' - foul play, taking out a player in the air); Keke Morabe (WP, 51' - repeated infringements, not rolling away)
Teams:
Lions: 15 Tiaan Swanepoel, 14 Stean Pienaar, 13 Matt More, 12 Tyler Bocks, 11 Boldwin Hansen, 10 Vaughan Isaacs, 9 Morné van den Berg, 8 Travis Gordon (captain), 7 Ruan Delport, 6 Sibusiso Sangweni, 5 Darrien-Lane Landsberg, 4 Pieter Janse van Vuren, 3 Ruan Smith, 2 Jaco Visagie, 1 Sithembiso Sithole.
Replacements: 16 Michael van Vuuren, 17 Morgan Naudé, 18 Kabous Bezuidenhout, 19 Raynard Roets, 20 Ruhan Straeuli, 21 Jarod Cairns, 22 Nico Steyn, 23 Zeilinga Strydom.
Western Province: 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Angelo Davids, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 11 Duncan Saal, 10 Kade Wolhuter, 9 Godlen Masimla, 8 Keke Morabe, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Marcel Theunissen, 5 Connor Evans, 4 Ernst van Rhyn (captain), 3 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 2 Siyabonga Ntubeni, 1 Kwenzo Blose.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Sazi Sandi, 19 Dylan de Leeuw, 20 Louwan Horn, 21 Paul de Wet, 22 Bruce Sherwood, 23 Suleiman Hartzenberg.
Referee: Griffin Colby
Assistant referees: Local
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen