Province crush the Pumas for another easy win.
Western Province beat the Pumas 54-13 last night to continue their winning streak. Even though the scorecard tells a sad story the Pumas put in a good effort and played with a lot of heart.
After 25mins the teams had exchanged a few penalties through fly-halvess Willem De Waal and Elgar Watts which put the score at 9-3 to Province. The Pumas were determined to keep Province from scoring a try. They defended well and were always looking to disrupt Province’s ball retention. Province weren’t producing their best performance as they struggled to build phases or to create any real opportunities to score.
The Pumas’ defence seemed to suddenly crack and in the 26th minute and tries began to flow for Province. Pieter Louw stretched over line for the opening try, followed by two great tries from Gio Aplon and another by Anton Van Zyl who made a clear line break from 10 metres out in the 37th minute to give Province a half time lead of 35-3. De Waal converted all but one attempt at goal who had another brilliant performance with the boot.
In the opening 10 minutes of the second half the Pumas looked quite determined despite their 32 point deficit but province were too strong and in the 57th minute Pieter Louw scored another try which came from a perfectly executed maul by Province. Substitute flyhalf Lionel Cronje converted extending the lead to 42-3.
Eventually Province’s rock solid defence began to show some cracks and in the 66th minute the Pumas’ efforts were awarded with a try from Shaun Venter to slightly lower the deficit. The conversion was missed by substitute Ricardo Croy which put the score at 42-8. Three minutes later the Pumas scored the try of the match which started in their own half. They simply ran into the gaping holes in Province’s defence and recycled the ball too fast for Province’s defence to see the ball. This eventually gave the Pumas’ substitute hooker, Torsten Van Jaarsveld, enough space to score. Once again Croy missed the conversion which left the score at 42-13 to Province.
After Province’s lapse in concentration, their defence tightened up again which brought about an intercept try in the 71st minute by Cronje who converted his own try stretching the lead to 49-13. This was followed by the last score of the match in the 76th minute when Province’s substitute JJ Engelbrecht, touched down for an unconverted try to push the final score up to 54-13.
Man of the Match: Pieter Louw, who produced his usual excellent work rate and scored two tries.
Scorers:
Vodacom Western Province
Tries: Aplon (2), Cronje, Engelbracht, Louw (2),Van Zyl;
Conversions: Cronje (2), De Waal (3);
Penalties: De Waal (3)
Barloworld Toyota Pumas
Tries: Van Jaarsveld, Venter
Penalties: Watts
Jonathan@15.co.za
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