Province just too good for Leopards
Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:07
Magic man: Western Province centre Juan de Jongh
Western Province took another giant leap towards securing home-ground advantage in the Currie Cup play-offs when they smashed the Leopards by 37-3 in Potchefstroom on Friday.
The five-tries-to-none, bonus-point win put them back on top of the standings - albeit only for 24 hours. They were overtaken on Saturday by the defending champion Sharks again.
This match was a bit like mining in the North West - lots of dull earth and then suddenly a diamond. There was dull earth all right and there were the diamonds that Western Province found.
It was such a broken game of drab bits and pieces - 25 penalties, 34 line-outs, 17 scrums and those 17 scrums were largely a mess of 12 resets off 11 collapses. Three penalties and two free kicks came from scrums.
The Leopards did not lie down and except for one late Western Province scrum they competed well. They also had their moments though they did not look like scoring a try, not even when they were a metre from the Western Province line. In fact when the Leopards were a metre from the Western Province line, Western Province scored a gem of a try, the brightest diamond of them all.
Much of the brilliance of the Western Province performance came from those mercurial backs - Joe Pietersen, Gio Aplon and Juan de Jongh. There was also the hard graft of forwards which produced two five-metre scrums and three five-metre line-outs.
There were three unusual features to the match.
First the referee was from Australia - Ian Smith, the first from there to referee a Currie Cup match.
Secondly, Olën Park had its biggest crowd of the year and the most of them - the most in numbers, colour and voice - supported Western Province from 1 500 km away.
Thirdly JJ Engelbrecht of Western Province was injured in the warm-up and his place was taken by speedster Steven Hunt who late in the match came off the bench for his first, unexpected Currie Cup match. Hunt, a 20-year-old Stellenbosch student who went to school at Grey in Port Elizabeth, came into the Western Province Under-21 side when Engelbrecht was taken up into the senior side and then into the senior side on this balmy evening on the banks of the Mooi River when Engelbrecht hurt himself warming up.
Western Province were always going to win the match but for the first half the Leopards competed in a determined, fingers-in-the-dyke sort of way.
The first diamond was found by De Jongh as he sped through the gap and a probable try was wasted by a pass that went astray near the goal-line, But the second five-metre scrum yielded the first Western Province try as Peter Grant threw a skip pass to Pietersen who cut inside Danie Dames and Basil de Doncker to score. He converted. 7-0 after 8 minutes.
That was the only try Western Province scored in the first half as the Leopards hurled them back time and again.
Cecil Dumond missed two kicks at goal but when Luke Watson was penalised at a tackle he goaled the lucky third. 7-3 after 17 minutes.
Pietersen skated forth on attack after a Leopard knock-on as he chipped, chased and gathered. In that attack Gavin Williamson was offside and Pietersen goaled. 10-3 after 20 minutes.
Dumond knocked on and Western Province countered but their only other score in the half was a penalty when Edrich Linde held on at a tackle. Mind you they came close when Pietersen hoofed downfield from inside his 22 and long-striding Tonderai Chavhanga raced after the ball, just beating Dames to it, stumbling as Dames dived for the ball but footing it into in-goal where it swirled around and where, brilliantly, Dames beat him to the touchdown.
The second half was different as wave after wave of Western Province attack swept the Leopards aside. Quick ball made it possible - that and the graft of the forwards.
From a penalty they bashed and the TMO said that Brock Harris had not scored. They bashed again and this time Watson broke away and scored. Pietersen converted. 20-3 after 47 minutes. Grant broke brilliantly out of defence as he dummied but a poor pass to Chavangha stifled the brilliant moment.
But Western Province were attacking and attacking till another penalty produced another five-metre line-out and another try for Watson as the forwards crashed over. Spectacular moments with two bread-and-butter tries. 27-3 after 54 minutes.
Western Province need one more try for a bonus point and 26 minutes to get it in. It took them 16 minutes and then it came only after tough Deon van Rensburg had been sin-binned for tackling Conrad Hoffman, on at flyhalf for Grant, without the ball. Western Province kicked the penalty into touch and then crabbed the ball to the right towards the posts, suddenly bursting to the blindside on the left where Hoffman gave a perfect pass to De Jongh who scored. 32-3 with 10 minutes to go.
Hoffman's kick on defence was charged down but Pietersen was on hand to save a metre from his line. Western Province got the ball back and Dewaldt Duvenhage gave to De Jongh who sped clear. Duvenhage gave a pass to François Louw and the big forward =gave to Aplon who raced 60 metres to score a splendid try to the delight of all those Western Province fans.
Man of the Match: There was the hard graft of Anton van Zyl and François Louw. There was the mercurial brilliance of Joe Pietersen and Gio Aplon - and there was the man in the middle of it all, the catalyst, the scrumhalf with every virtue a scrumhalf needs - Dewaldt Duvenhage, our Man of the Match.
The scorers:
For the Leopards:
Pen: Dumond
For Western Province:
Tries: Pietersen, Watson 2, De Jongh, Aplon
Cons: Pietersen 3
Pens:
Pietersen 2
Yellow card: Deon van Rensburg (Leopards, 70th min - early tackle)
Teams:
Leopards: 15 Russell Jeacocks, 14 Danie Dames, 13 Deon van Rensburg, 12 Basil de Doncker, 11 Jan van Zyl, 10 Cecil Dumond, 9 Michael Bondesio, 8 RW Kember, 7 Thabo Mamojele, 6 Wilhelm Koch (captain), 5 Edrich Linde, 4 Rynard Landman, 3 Barend van der Walt, 2 Gavin Williamson, 1 Nardus Lombard.
Replacements: 16 Pellow van der Westhuizen, 17 Dietlov Coetzee, 18 Bennie Adams, 19 Christo van Niekerk, 20 Jean Tiedt, 21 Clayton Durand, 22 Nicky Kritzinger.
Western Province: 15 Joe Pietersen, 14 Tonderai Chavhanga, 13 Frikkie Welsh, 12 Juan De Jongh, 11 Gio Aplon, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Luke Watson (captain), 7 Duane Vermeulen, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Anton Van Zyl, 4 De Kock Steenkamp, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Deon Fourie, 1 Wicus Blaauw.
Replacements:
16 Tiaan Liebenberg, 17 JD Moller, 18 Hilton Lobberts, 19 Pieter Louw, 20 Conrad Hoffmann, 21 Paul Bosch, 22 JJ Engelbrecht.
Referee: Ian Smith (Australia)
Assistant referees: Ben Crouse, Peet Badenhorst
TMO: Gerrie Coetzee
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