DHL Western Province U21 proved too strong for Eastern Province U21 as they picked up a 27-10 bonus point victory in Port Elizabeth on Friday.
DHL Western Province U21 proved too strong for Eastern Province U21 as they picked up a 27-10 bonus point victory in Port Elizabeth on Friday.
The visitors outscored their hosts by four tries to one to pick up what was a convincing win in the end at Framesby High School.
DHL Western Province U21 opened the scoring with a penalty from flyhalf Brandon Thomson, but the home side hit back with a try to take a 7-3 lead.
They maintained that advantage for the next 20 minutes, but DHL Western Province U21 eventually managed to break the hosts’ defence with two tries late in the first half.
No.8 Christo van der Merwe crossed for the first try, which was followed up soon afterwards with another five-pointer from scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies, and with Thomson converting both tries DHL Western Province U21 took a 17-7 lead into the half-time break.
The visitors were first to strike in the second half, with outside centre Eduan Keyter dotting down for their third try which took their lead out to 22-7.
Eastern Province U21 responded with a penalty, and DHL Western Province U21 were struck a further blow when inside centre Ryan Oosthuizen was shown a yellow card.
It got even tougher for the visitors when fullback Grant Hermanus was shown a red card, which meant that they were down to 14 men for the last 10 minutes.
Despite that setback, they managed to score the bonus-point try through flank Mitchell Carstens to put the seal on the win.
The scorers:
For DHL WP U21:
Tries: Van der Merwe, Jantjies, Keyter, Carstens
Cons: Thomson 2
Pen: Thomson
DHL Western Province U21: 15 Grant Hermanus, 14 Sibahle Maxwane, 13 Eduan Keyter, 12 Ryan Oosthuizen, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Brandon Thomson, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Christo van der Merwe, 7 Mitchell Carstens, 6 Luke Stringer (captain), 5 David Ribbans, 4 Eduard Zandberg, 3 Frans van Wyk, 2 Percy Mngadi, 1 Kyle Whyte.
Replacements: 16 Hanno Snyman, 17 Michael Kumbirai, 18 Daniel Maree, 19 Jaco Willemse, 20 Paul de Wet, 21 Heinrich Buhr , 22 Aidynn Cupido.