Province cruise past hapless Cavaliers
Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:58
Western Province had little trouble in disposing a hapless Boland Cavaliers team, with captain Luke Watson scoring three of his team's seven tries as the men from Cape Town recorded a 50-7 Currie Cup win at Newlands on Saturday, to book themselves home ground advantage in the play-offs.
Rain, it seems, is a better ingredient in baking a rugby match than sunshine. Last weekend in the Newlands wet, Western Province played Griquas in a match of enthusiasm, intensity and skill. On Saturday, in the warm sunshine with not a cloud in the sky and no wind blowing the rugby was desultory and, frankly, dull, lacking all intensity.
Last week there were 26 000 enthusiastic people in the rain who made rugby noises throughout. This week there was a buzz in the crowd, but it was the low-level buzz of conversation. It was better to ask your neighbour about the price of bread in Moorreesburg that express an interest about what was happening on the field.
The predictable happened on the field. Western Province beat Boland comfortably, gained a bonus point and assured themselves of a home semifinal on 17 October.
Off the field it was the first warm day of spring and people turned up in shorts and skimpy clothing, revealing lots of untanned flesh on its first summer revelation.
There were contributing factors to the desultory nature of the game. There were long breaks in play with all sorts of people wandering onto the field to minister to the players. Last week, the rain came down and the scrums stayed up. This week the rain stayed away but the scrums came down. There were 21 scrums with 14 collapses - and some collapses were invitations to the ministers to come back onto the field.
And then there was the annoying performance of Ricky Januarie - a musical performance. He either stood over the produced ball and sang Waiting, waiting, waiting for the ball, though the ball was there or he did the two-step before producing it. Fast ball was not the order of the day, for as a result Western Province's backs had their space reduced. Fast! It was the pace of a chameleon. When Bolla Conradie replaced him, to the delight of the crowd, he danced the two-step.
Everything it seemed conspired to punish the loyal 15 500 for going to rugby when they could be enjoying the gift of such a splendid day.
Right from the start Western Province made it clear that they wanted tries. They got them - seven of them. Three went to Luke Watson as his pack - as he remarked afterwards - scored three tries for their No.8.
The first came after 7 minutes when Western Province kicked a penalty out, formed a maul and rushed it over the line. 7-0.
After Boland had missed the easiest of penalties, Western Province sped down the left and turned the ball infield to burly hooker Tiaan Liebenberg who went fullsteam ahead for the line. That try delighted everybody. 14-0 after 14 minutes.
Joe Pietersen kicked a penalty from 46 metres, the only penalty scored in the match. 17-0 after 18 minutes.
Western Province had four five-metre scrums in the match. The first came after a brilliant break by Frikkie Welsh off an inside pass from To'omua. Western Province were held up. Then Januarie was held up. Then Andries Bekker put his lengthy body over the line next to the posts. 24-0 after 31 minutes.
In this half both sides had preferred running to kicking, though Boland's idea of running seemed to be to give the ball to Hilton Lobberts to see if he could hurl his bulk through. He never got beyond the first defender in his path.
Two brothers won R2000 at half-time by kicking the ball over and a tall girl was given a jersey as a present to mark the half-millionth spectator at Newlands this year, for the second year in a row.
At the start of the second half there was a splendid break by inside centre Paul Bosch which may just have signalled the arrival of yet another star Western Province back, there to complement Juan de Jongh whose debut season it has been.
Western Province made a penalty into a five-metre line-out and a second penalty into a five-metre scrum from which they bashed till Januarie dummied and fell for the try. 34-0 after 55 minutes. That was the bonus-point try. obviously mission was in the process of being accomplished.
Conrad Hoffman came on for To'omua and produced two splendid passes till Tonderai Chavhanga was free to speed down the right to score. 36-0.
Western Province were again on the attack till Deon Scholtz caught a long pass and ran 70 metres to the Western Province posts. Substitute flyhalf Mark Harris converted. 43-7.
Western Province then got two more tries. Watson scored the first from a five-metre line-out and maul and Watson got the second as the Western Province pack shoved the Bolanders back at a five-metre scrum.
Man of the Match: Pieter Louw grabbed his chance to start and he played with energy and enthusiasm. He and his namesake and fellow flank François Louw were, it seemed, the only ones to do. Pieter tackled, fetched, caught the high ball, ran elusively and passed judiciously....
The scorers:
For Western Province:
Tries: Bekker, Chavhanga, Januarie, Liebenberg, Watson 3
Cons: Pietersen 6
Pen: Pietersen
For the Boland Cavaliers:
Try: Scholtz
Con: Harris
Teams:
Western Province: 15 Joe Pietersen, 14 Tonderai Chavhanga, 13 Frikkie Welsh, 12 Paul Bosch, 11 Sireli Naqelevuki, 10 Matt Toomua, 9 Ricky Januarie, 8 Luke Watson (captain), 7 Pieter Louw, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 De Kock Steenkamp, 3 JC Kritzinger, 2 Tiaan Liebenberg, 1 JD Moller.
Replacements: 16
Deon Fourie, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Anton van Zyl, 19 Duane Vermeulen, 20 Bolla Conradie, 21 Conrad Hoffmann, 22 Juan de Jongh.
Boland Cavaliers: 15 Hayden Groepes, 14 Deon Scholtz, 13 Cornel Hendricks, 12 Dewey Swartbooi, 11 Wendal Wehr, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Marnus Hugo, 8 Junior Bester, 7 Hilton Lobberts, 6 Angelo Brinkhuys, 5 Rito Hlungwani (captain), 4 Nico Esterhuyse, 3 Jacobie Adriaanse, 2 Harry Vermaas, 1 Janro van Niekerk.
Replacements: 16 Clemen Lewis, 17 Michael de Neuilly-Rice, 18 Grant le Roux, 19 David Hendricks, 20 Danie van der Merwe, 21 Mark Harris, 22 Justin Peach.
Referee: Sindile Mayende
Assistant referees: Jason Jaftha, Marc van Zyl
TMO: Gerrie Coetzee
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