Basson hat-trick sinks Cavaliers
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 20:26
Wing Bjorn Basson made a star turn for his province as the Griquas swept the challenge of the Boland Cavaliers aside with a 48-22 Currie Cup win at Absa Park in Kimberley on Saturday.
The jet-heeled Basson scored a superb hat-trick of tries to put the contest beyond doubt for the Kimberley outfit in this basement battle on the Currie Cup log.
Boland fullback Justin Peach had put his team 3-0 up with a penalty in the fourth minute, before the home team responded with two well-worked converted tries.
The first was scored by the speedy Basson in the sixth minute, and the second by eighthman Heinrich Stride (15th minute) following excellent support play between backs and forwards.
Boland struck back with a try by prop WP Nel in the 24th minute and with Peach kicking the conversion, it was 14-10 to Griquas.
But in the space of two minutes, Basson scored his second try of the match, and then also made another chance which left wing MJ Mentz accepted with glee. Flyhalf Conrad Barnard kicked the two conversions, and Griquas, already bonus point to the good in the 36th minute, led 28-10.
Early in the second half, Boland skipper and centre Piet van Zyl scored an opportunistic try, which was also converted by Peach. That score brought the Boland some hope of making a comeback, and shrunk their deficit to 17-28 with 30 minutes remaining.
But Barnard's well-struck, angled penalty from long-range stretched the home team's advantage to a handy 14 points midway through the second period.
That lead became 21 points when Mentz rounded off a fine movement to score his second try.
Basson completed a superb personal performance when, following up scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius' clever kick into space, he gathered the ball at speed and dived over in the corner to complete his
hat-trick.
With Griquas now leading 43-17 the Bolanders threw caution to the wind, running the ball at every opportunity.
Replacement wing Renfred Dazel scored the Bolanders' third try in the 34th minute, but the home side replied two minutes from the final whistle through replacement scrumhalf Tobie Botes' five-pointer to put the icing on a well-deserved win, as the Griquas collected five valuable log points.
Scorers:
For Griquas:
Tries: Basson 3, Stride, Mentz 2, Botes
Cons: Barnard 5
Pen: Barnard
For Boland:
Tries: Dazel, Van Zyl, Nel
Cons: Peach 2
Pen: Peach
Teams:
Griquas: 15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Bjorn Basson, 13 Barry Geel, 12 Herkie Kruger, 11 MJ Mentz, 10 Conrad Barnard, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Heinrich Stride, 7 Stephan Gerber, 6 Gareth Krause (captain), 5 Brendon Snyman, 4 Wayne van Heerden, 3 Bees Roux, 2 Hans van Dyk, 1 Regardt Dreyer.
Replacements: 16 James van der Walt, 17 Ruaan du Preez, 18 Rohan
Kitshoff, 19 Jacques Lombaard, 20 Tobie Botes, 21 Jaco Bekker, 22 Naas Olivier.
Boland: 15 Justin Peach, 14 Cornell Hendricks, 13 Piet van Zyl (captain), 12 Lionel Cornelius, 11 Alvin Hugo, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Marnus Hugo, 8 Dries van Schalkwyk, 7 Angelo Brinkhuys, 6 Zolani Mofu, 5 Bradley Mockford, 4 Nico Esterhuizen, 3 WP Nel, 2 Harry Vermaas, 1 Janro van Niekerk.
Replacements: 16 Pieter Wium, 17 Jean Botha, 18 Cecil Kemp, 19 Whalied Heyns, 20 Neil Papier, 21 Deon Scholtz, 22 Renfred Dazel.
Referee: Deon van Blommestein
Touch judges: Jaco Peyper, Cobus Wessels
SAPA
