The DHL Western Province Under-19 team suffered a 16-46 defeat to the Blue Bulls Under-19s at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday afternoon.
The result saw the WP juniors drop out of the top four on the Provincial Under-19 standings, but the youngsters from the Cape will lick their wounds knowing that a semifinal place is still not out of the question this season.
Province have a bye next weekend and will then travel to East London to take on the Border U19s in a must-win encounter on Saturday, September 28, before finishing up their league campaign against the Lions (home) and the Sharks (away) on successive weekends in October.
Today’s match, however, saw WP trail by 9-32 at half-time.
Ultimately, they conceded seven tries and scored one of their own as the star-studded Bulls youngsters kept up their unbeaten run in 2013 in the process.
WP’s only try was scored by new lock Attie van Rensburg. Flyhalf Chris Smith (pictured, above) converted Van Rensburg’s score and also added two penalties and one drop-goal.
The DHL Western Province Under-19 scorers:
Try: Van Rensburg
Con: Smith
Pens: Smith 2
DG: Smith
The DHL Western Province Under-19 team (v Bulls): 15 Jason Worrall, 14 Dewald Naude, 13 Jarryd Sage, 12 Jason Morris, 11 Dalen Goliath, 10 Chris Smith, 9 Pieter Schoonraad, 8 Ramone Samuels (captain), 7 Gareth Ehret, 6 Steven Meiring, 5 Sebastian Negri, 4 Attie van Rensburg, 3 Liam Hendricks, 2 Chad Solomon, 1 Wesley Adonis.
Replacements: 16 Josh Moon, 17 Michael van Tonder, 18 Nathan Gogela, 19 Janco Venter, 20 Luke van der Smit, 21 SP Ferreira, 22 Jonty Bredell, 23 Michael Mvelase.
Referee: Pieter Janse van Vuuren