Pumas, Sharks setting the pace
Only two teams retained 100 percent records after the opening two rounds of the Vodacom Cup, while a further three can boast of being unbeaten.
Sitting pretty at the top of the respective sections are the Pumas, who edged the Blue Bulls in a thriller for their second successive victory, while The Sharks XV were also on the road to edge out Western Province in a similarly tense affair.
The EP Kings, Boland Cavaliers and Pampas XV also had second round wins – to add to opening day draws – to preserve their unbeaten records.
At the other end of the logs are the SWD Eagles, Border Bulldogs, Limpopo Blue Bulls and defending champion Western Province who are the four teams yet to record a victory.
The Sharks XV and Western Province teams were on the receiving end of countless penalties and a red and yellow card for ill-discipline.
Province finished the game with 13 players on the park and the Sharks with 14 as the latter edged to a 24-23 victory.
Riaan Viljoen, veteran fullback of the Sharks, scored the winning try for the visitors with his flyhalf Fred Zeilinga keeping a cool head to convert in the dying seconds of the game to give his side the one-point win.
It took a similarly last-gasp penalty from the Pumas to edge past the Blue Bulls 43-42 on the Loftus Versfeld B field in Pretoria on Saturday.
The Pumas had seemingly been in control of the match as they stretched their lead to 41-23 with 13 minutes left to play. But two tries for the Blue Bulls through replacement forward Roelof Smit and left wing Sampie Mastriet narrowed the gap to 41-37 with seven minutes left to play and the hosts finally looked to have sealed a magnificent fightback when right wing Travis Ismaiel nipped over for an unconverted try with one minute left to play. However, flyhalf Tony Jantjies crucially missed with his conversion attempt.
The Blue Bulls held a 42-41 lead but with the hooter having already sounded Pumas replacement flyhalf Carl Bezuidenhout stepped up to slot the winning penalty to seal the nail-biting win.
It was another tough day at the office for the Limpopo Blue Bulls who conceded the most points and biggest defeat in the 15-year history of the competition. The 113 points and 110-point win by the Leopards surpassed the 110-17 beating the Welwitchias suffered at the hands of EP in 2001.
The 17 tries scored by the Leopards was also a new competition record with hat-tricks from Ian Heyns (who score four) and Rhyk Welgemoed while former Springbok flyhalf Andre Pretorius kicked a record 14 conversions.
All the scores and scorers:
Western Province 23 (9) Sharks XV 24 (14)
Scorers:
Western Province:
Tries: Michael van der Spuy, Rayn Smid
Cons: Gary Van Aswegen 2
Pens: Van Aswegen 2
DG: Van Aswegen
Sharks XV:
Tries: S'bura Sithole, Riaan Viljoen, Sizo Maseko
Cons: Zeilinga 3
Pen: Zeilinga
Griffons 12 (0) Griquas 26 (12)
Scorers:
Griffins:
Tries: Colin Herbert, Japie Nel
Con: Hansie Graaff
Griquas:
Tries: Justin Downey, Leon Karemaker, Marnus Schoeman, Francois Brummer
Cons: Francois Brummer 3
Border Bulldogs 22 (10) Eastern Province Kings 30 (22)
Scorers:
Bulldogs
Tries: Joe Seerane 2, Sinovuyo Nyoka
Cons: Karlo Aspeling 2
Pen: Aspeling
EP Kings:
Tries: Devin Oosthuizen, Paul Schoeman, Siviwe Soyizwapi, Virgile Lacombe
Cons: Wesley Dunlop 2
Pens: Scott van Breda, Dunlop
Blue Bulls 42 (23) Pumas 43 (31)
Scorers:
Blue Bulls:
Tries: Dries Swanepoel 2, Roelof Smit, Sampie Mastriet, Travis Ismaiel
Cons: Tony Jantjies 4
Pens: Jantjies 3
Pumas:
Tries: Ivann Espag, Marius Coetzer, Renaldo Bothma, Rosko Specman, Stefan Watermeyer, Vincent Koch
Cons: Tiaan Marx 4, Carl Bezuidenhout
Penalty: Marx
Free State XV 23 (11), Boland Cavaliers 27 (14)
Scorers:
Free State XV:
Tries: Tewis de Bruyn, Joubert Engelbrecht, Ludwig Erasmus
Con: De Bruyn
Pens: De Bruyn 2
Boland Cavaliers:
Tries: Thor Halvorsen 2, Tythan Adams
Cons: Ricardo Croy 2, Garth April
Pens: Croy 2
SWD Eagles 17 (7) Pampas 22 (17)
Scorers:
SWD Eagles:
Tries: Alshaun Bock, Lyndon Hartnick
Cons: Elric van Vuuren 2
Pen: Van Vuuren
Pampas:
Tries: Penalty Try, Tomas Cubelli, Manuel Montero
Cons: Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias 2
Pen: Iglesias
Leopards 113 (47), Limpopo Blue Bulls 3 (3)
Scorers:
Leopards XV:
Tries: Jaques Vermaak 2, Adriaan Engelbrecht 2, Danie Dames, Ian Heyns 4, Edmar Marais 2, Rhyk Welgemoed 3, Andre Pretorius, Johan Smith, Malherbe Swart
Cons: Pretorius 14
Limpopo Blue Bulls:
Pen: Bronwyn Craill
Falcons 27 (14) Golden Lions 22 (17)
Scorers:
Falcons:
Tries: Nico Engelbrecht 2, Kyle Hendricks
Cons: Wesley Roberts 3
Pens: Jaun Kotze 2
Lions:
Tries: Ashlon Davids, Chris Newman, Henri Boshoff, Van Zyl Botha
Con: Hanco Deale
Standings:
(under headings played, won, lost, drawn, points for, points against, points difference, tries for, tries against, losing bonus points, try bonus points, log points)
North Section
Pumas 2 2 0 0 106 42 64 16 5 0 2 10
Golden Lions 2 1 1 0 67 42 25 11 4 1 2 7
Blue Bulls 2 1 1 0 82 76 6 11 11 1 2 7
Griquas 2 1 1 0 58 52 6 9 8 0 2 6
Leopards XV 2 1 1 0 128 48 80 19 7 0 1 5
Griffons 2 1 1 0 62 40 22 10 5 0 1 5
Falcons 2 1 1 0 27 84 -57 2 14 0 0 4
Limpopo Blue Bulls 2 0 2 0 17 163 -146 1 25 0 0 0
South Section
Sharks XV 2 2 0 0 96 29 67 13 2 0 1 9
EP Kings 2 1 0 1 50 42 8 5 3 0 1 7
Pampas 2 1 0 1 42 37 5 4 3 0 0 6
Boland 2 1 0 1 44 40 4 5 6 0 0 6
Free State XV 2 1 1 0 54 35 19 6 4 1 0 5
WP 2 0 1 1 40 41 -1 5 5 1 0 3
SWD 2 0 2 0 25 53 -28 3 6 1 0 1
Border 2 0 2 0 28 102 -74 2 14 0 0 0
