DHL Western Province went down 22-21 to Boland in a nailbiting SuperSport Rugby Challenge Cape derby at Florida Park on Sunday.
It was the first defeat of the campaign for DHL Western Province in the final round of the league phase of the competition and they will face Griquas in the semifinal in Nelspruit next week.
DHL Western Province opened the scoring with a penalty from flyhalf Abner van Reenen, but Boland responded with a try in the corner from wing Valentino Wellman.
Both teams then scored via their hookers from driving mauls, as first DHL Western Province’s Schalk ERasmus went over, before Boland’s Neil Rautenbach returned the favour.
DHL Western Province were reduced to 14 men when fullback Tristan Leyds was shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock-down, which saw the referee also award a penalty try.
Boland took a 19-10 lead into the half-time break, leaving DHL Western Province with an uphill battle in the second half.
DHL Western Province started the second half with a Van Reenen penalty and came from their own half to score a try soon afterwards.
A turnover in the 22 from hooker Dan Jooste saw Leyds break out before finding scrumhalf Justin Phillips with a flick pass. Phillips floated a pass out to centre David Brits who dived over for the try.
That brought DHL Western Province within one point and they went back in front 10 minutes from the end with a third penalty from Van Reenen.
Boland edged in front again with a late penalty and DHL Western Province were down a man for the final stages, with Van Reenen shown a yellow card. That was enough to seal a tense victory in the end and hand DHL Western Province their first defeat of the campaign.
The scorers:
For DHL WP:
Tries: Erasmus, Brits
Con: Van Reenen
Pens: Van Reenen 3
For Boland:
Tries: Wellman, Rautenbach, penalty try
Cons: Mattheus
Pen: Mattheus
DHL Western Province: 15 Tristan Leyds, 14 Sihle Njezula, 13 David Brits, 12 Lyle Hendricks, 11 Andre Manuel, 10 Abner van Reenen, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Marno Redelinghuys (captain), 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Dian Koen, 5 Jordan Sesink-Clee, 4 Brandon Valentyn, 3 Michael Kumbirai, 2 Schalk Erasmus, 1 Kwenzo Blose.
Replacements: 16 Daniel Jooste, 17 Sazi Sandi, 18 Curtly Thomas, 19 Jessie Johnson, 20 Justin Phillips, 21 Cornel Smit, 22 Nico Leonard.