Nine tries, six of which came in the second half, saw DHL WP open their SuperSport Rugby Challenge campaign in impressive fashion, beating the SWD Eagles 62-7 in East London on Sunday.
The match, the first of two of the Rugby Festival held in the BCM Stadium, showed that the Cape side will be hard to beat in the South Section of the competition. They had a 24-7 lead at the break, before cutting loose in the second half.
Some enterprising play by the backs and good backing up by teammates delivered two early tries for DHL WP. Both wingers, Edwill van der Merwe and Nico Leonard, finished good team tries.
SWD’s try was a solid individual effort. Midfielder Marquit September took an inside pass just outside his 22 and dummied the WP defence before he raced 70 metres to open his team’s account. Gerhard Nortier converted in what proved the only points for the men from George.
A powerful line-out drive by DHL WP extended their lead just before the break, with hooker Dan Jooste dotting down. The Eagles managed to keep their opponents out with some stellar defence in the first 10 minutes of the second half, but a fluent movement in the backs saw flyhalf Abner van Reenen scoring under the sticks. He converted his own try for a 31-7 lead.
This opened the floodgates. Van der Merwe got a second and replacement wing Sihle Njezula his first after some productive play by Tristan Leyds. EW Viljoen, Johan du Toit and Craig Barry also added tries in the final minutes as DHL WP took full control of the match.
The scorers:
For DHL WP:
Tries: Van der Merwe 2, Leonard, Jooste, Van Reenen, Njezula, Viljoen, Du Toit, Barry
Cons: Van Reenen 5, Hendricks 2
Pen: Van Reenen
For SWD Eagles
Try: Marquit September
Con: Gerhard Nortier
DHL Western Province: 15 Craig Barry (captain), 14 Nico Leonard, 13 EW Viljoen, 12 Lyle Hendricks, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Abner van Reenen, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 7 Johan du Toit, 6 Marno Redelinghuys, 5 David Meihuizen, 4 Ben-Jason Dixon, 3 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 2 Daniel Jooste, 1 Kwenzo Blose.
Replacements: 16 Chadley Wenn, 17 Liam Hendricks, 18 Jordan Sesink-Clee, 19 Chris Massyn, 20 Deon Carstens, 21 Tristan Leyds, 22 Sihle Njezula.