DHL Western Province outscored the Down Touch Griffons by seven tries to two, to pick up a comfortable 38-26 victory at City Park in Athlone on Saturday.
DHL Western Province outscored the Down Touch Griffons by seven tries to two, to pick up a comfortable 38-26 victory at City Park in Athlone on Saturday.
It was a clinical performance from coach John Dobson’s charges as they secured their eighth win from nine games this season and closed the gap on the ORC Griquas at the top of the standings.
The home team struck early when a loose ball was hacked ahead by scrumhalf Godlen Masimla from the first scrum, and centre Jaco Taute was on hand to finish the try.
They followed that up soon afterwards with a maul try from hooker Chad Solomon which put them firmly in control with a 12-0 lead.
The Griffons got on the scoreboard with two penalties from the boot of flyhalf George Whitehead, but DHL Western Province responded with their third try which was finished off by flank Eital Bredenkamp who was put through by EW Viljoen.
Whitehead slotted a drop-goal and followed that up with another penalty to cut the deficit to 17-12 at the half-time break, with DHL Western Province having outscored the visitors by three tries to nil.
DHL Western Province secured the bonus point at the start of the second half as Taute scored his second try under the poles to extend the lead to 24-12.
The next try was a superb individual effort from Viljoen who got the ball in his own half and beat a number of defenders to score under the poles, and he scored his second shortly afterwards after getting a great offload from du Preez, with the resulting conversion taking the lead out to 38-12.
The Griffons responded with a try from No.8 De Wet Kruger, but DHL Western Province hit back with their seventh as replacement scrumhalf Justin Phillips got over the whitewash before Griffons prop Danie van der Merwe scored a late consolation try.
The scorers:
For DHL WP:
Tries: Taute 2, Solomon, Bredenkamp, Viljoen 2, Phillips
Cons: Du Preez 4
For Down Touch Griffons:
Tries: Kruger, Van der Merwe
Cons: Whitehead 2
Pens: Whitehead 2
DG: Whitehead
Teams:
DHL Western Province: 15 Grant Hermanus, 14 Khanyo Ngcukana, 13 EW Viljoen, 12 Jaco Taute, 11 Sibahle Maxwane, 10 Robert du Preez, 9 Godlen Masimla, 8 Kobus van Dyk, 7 Jurie van Vuuren, 6 Eital Bredenkamp, 5 Chris van Zyl (captain), 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Chad Solomon, 1 Alistair Vermaak.
Replacements: 16 Cullen Collopy, 17 Kyle Whyte, 18 Luke Stringer, 19 Beyers de Villiers, 20 Justin Phillips, 21 Brandon Thomson, 22 JP Lewis.
Down Touch Griffons: 15 Tertius Maarman, 14 Selwyn Davids, 13 Duan Pretorius, 12 Japie Nel, 11 Warren Williams, 10 George Whitehead, 9 Boela Abrahams, 8 De Wet Kruger, 7 Boela Venter, 6 Thato Mavundla, 5 Gavin Annandale (captain), 4 Samora Fihlani, 3 Heinrich Roelofse, 2 Kwezi Mkhafu, 1 Danie van der Merwe.
Replacements: 16 Hennie Venter, 17 Gerhard Baard, 18 Vince Maruping, 19 Martin Sithole, 20 Louis Venter, 21 Norman Nelson, 22 Vuyo Mbotho.
