A late penalty saw DHL Western Province go down 25-24 in a thrilling Currie Cup encounter with the defending champion Airlink Pumas at Mbombela Stadium on Friday.

The visitors looked to have secured a valuable away win, but a last-gasp penalty saw the home team claim the spoils in the end.

DHL Western Province made a convincing start as Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu collected a grubber and juggled to score the opening try.

The Airlink Pumas responded with a try from hooker Corne Fourie, but DHL Western Province were back in front immediately as flank Jarrod Taylor chanrged down from the restart to score the second try.

Fourie scored his second try from a maul and the hosts followed that up with an opportunistic counter-attack try against the run of play from wing Stefan Coetzee, which saw them take a slender 19-17 lead into the half-time break.

The second half was a tense affair and DHL Western Province looked to have sealed victory when replacement Luke Burger got on the end of a cross-kick, but the Airlink Pumas had the final say as a last-gasp penaty saw them take the win in the end.

The scorers:

For DHL WP:
Tries: Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Taylor, Burger
Cons: Feinberg-Mngomezulu 3
Pen: Feinberg-Mngomezulu

For Airlink Pumas:
Tries: Fourie 2, Coetzee
Cons: De Beer 2
Pens: De Beer, Thomson

DHL Western Province: 15 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 14 Duncan Saal, 13 Juan de Jongh (captain), 12 Cornel Smit, 11 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 10 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 9 Godlen Masimla, 8 Keke Morabe, 7 Jarrod Taylor, 6 Junior Pokomela, 5 Gary Porter, 4 Connor Evans, 3 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 2 Andre-Hugo Venter, 1 Kwenzo Blose.
Replacements: 16 Chad Solomon, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Corne Weilbach, 19 Dylan de Leeuw, 20 Louw Nel, 21 Labib Kannemeyer, 22 Damian Markus, 23 Luke Burger.