DHL Western Province went down 19-33 to the Sharks in the 2013 Absa Currie Cup Final at DHL Newlands on Saturday night, as the hosts just missed out on a perfect season.
Having last year travelled to Durban and returned to Cape Town as Currie Cup champions, DHL WP suffered their first loss of the 2013 Absa Currie Cup season in tonight's final in front of a near-capacity crowd of 46,564.
Going into this match, DHL WP had lost just once at DHL Newlands in all competitions in 2013 – but they were unable to come away with win and, with it, back-to-back Absa Currie Cup titles.
The visitors ran into an early 10-0 lead – through a penalty and a converted intercept try – before Damian de Allende hit back with a brilliant try in the 11th minute, the powerful centre spotting a game in the Sharks 22 and brushing off two defenders en route to the tryline.
The Sharks led 19-13 at half-time, but it was DHL WP who drew first blood in the second half when flyhalf Demetri Catrakilis slotted a penalty in the 43rd minute.
At 16-19, the game was still wide open but Lambie wasted no time in stretching his team's lead back to six points when he popped over a penalty just two minutes later.
Province suffered a big blow when Catrakilis went off injured in the 47th minute – in a heavy tackle by Bismarck du Plessis – but worse was to come when Lambie landed his second drop-goal of the evening in the 52nd minute.
The hosts rang the changes as the final quarter approached, with Juan de Jongh and Nic Groom joining the fray, and replacement No.10 Kurt Coleman narrowed the gap to 19-25 with 25 minutes left on the lock.
The Sharks, however, hit back quickly and McLeod collected his second try with 22 minutes left to stretch their lead to 30-19.
DHL WP launched a series of raids on the Sharks in the closing stages, most notably with 12 minutes left on the clock when Cheslin Kolbe was bundled into touch with the tryline in sight – handing WP a penalty for a high tackle on him.
Province elected to kick for touch in an attempt to close the 11-point gap and they set up the line-out and a powerful maul brought them within an inch of a try, only to be penalised for dangerous play.
A late Lambie penalty took the score to 33-19 with just two minutes left, but WP should still be commended for an outstanding 2013 which saw them fall just short in the end of a perfect season.
However, some consolation for WP came in the form of their Under-21 side who claimed the Absa Provincial U21 title in fine style, defeating a star-studded Bulls team by 30-23 in one of the earlier curtain-raisers.
The scorers:
For DHL Western Province:
Try: De Allende
Con: Catrakilis
Pens: Catrakilis 3, Coleman
For the Sharks:
Tries: McLeod 2
Con: Lambie
Pens: Lambie 5
DG: Lambie 2
The teams:
DHL Western Province: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 Jean de Villiers (vice-captain), 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Cheslin Kolbe, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Siya Kolisi,
6 Deon Fourie (captain), 5 De Kock Steenkamp, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Pat Cilliers, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Replacements: 16 Frans Malherbe, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Michael Rhodes, 19 Schalk Burger, 20 Nic Groom, 21 Kurt Coleman, 22 Juan de Jongh.
Sharks: 15 SP Marais, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Louis Ludik, 12 Francois Steyn, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Patrick Lambie, 9 Charl McLeod, 8 Keegan Daniel (captain) , 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4 Peet Marais, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Kyle Cooper, 17 Wiehahn Herbst, 18 Stephan Lewies, 19 Jacques Botes, 20 Cobus Reinach, 21 Fred Zeilinga, 22 Heimar Williams.
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan
Assistant referees: Christie du Preez, Stefan Breytenbach
TMO: Deon van Blommestein
