Sharks XV establish early lead

Half the teams in the North Section of the Vodacom Cup kicked the season off with a full house of five log points, but in the South the Sharks XV are on their own at the top of the log.

Defending Vodacom Cup champions, Western Province, found the going tough in their opening match of the season as they fought back to draw with a spirited Boland Cavaliers team in Ceres.

The log jam in the north was thanks to bonus-point wins on Saturday afternoon for the Pumas, Griffons, Golden Lions and the Blue Bulls.

The Pumas were simply way too strong for the Falcons in Nelspruit and scored 10 tries en route to a 62-0 victory, with flank Uzair Cassien getting the first hat-trick of the 2013 Vodacom Cup season in the 46th minute of this encounter.

Hot on their heels were the Griffons, who taught new boys, the Limpopo Blue Bulls, what Vodacom Cup rugby is all about with an emphatic 50-15 win in Polokwane. Nicky Steyn scored three tries for the visitors.

At Pirates Rugby Club in Johannesburg, the Golden Lions beat their western neighbours, the Leopards XV, by 45-15, scoring seven tries in the process.

But probably most impressive were the Blue Bulls, who overcame a tricky hurdle when they beat Griquas, four-time Vodacom Cup champions, by 40-32 in Kimberley.

The visitors scored six tries to five – two of these in the final five minutes of the match – as they had to fight back to get their season off to a perfect start.

Western Province needed a late try by Jody Reyneke and conversion by Gary van Aswegen to draw level with Boland Cavaliers in front of more than 7,500 people in picturesque Ceres.

Supporters of the home team thought the Cavaliers were going to score an upset victory when Ashton Constant scored a converted seven minutes from full-time, but the Capetonians did not let up and pulled level with less than three minutes left on the clock.

In Port Elizabeth, Wesley Dunlop kicked a penalty goal in the 80th minute to give the EP Kings a 20-20 draw against the Pampas XV, the former Vodacom Cup champions from Argentina, at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

On Friday, the Sharks XV and Toyota Free State XV kicked their campaigns off with impressive away victories over the Border Bulldogs and SWD Eagles respectively.

The KwaZulu-Natalians ran in 10 tries as Fred Zeilinga contributed 32 of their points in a 72-6 rout of the Bulldogs in Durban.

Down the N2, in George, the Free Staters only managed three tries, but still beat the Eagles comfortably by 31-8. Tewis de Bruyn kicked 16 points for the visitors.

All the scorers:

Border Bulldogs 6-72 Sharks XV

For Border Bulldogs:

Pens: Aspeling 2

For Sharks XV:

Tries: Sithole, Fisher 2, Zeilinga 2, Maseko 2, Williams, Prinsloo, Venter

Cons: Zeilinga 8

Pens: Zeilinga 2

SWD Eagles 8-31 Free State XV

For SWD Eagles:

Try: Kemp

Pen: Van Vuuren

For Free State XV:

Tries: Claassen, Fredericks, Erasmus

Cons: De Bruyn 2

Pens: De Bruyn 4

Boland Cavaliers 17-17 Western Province

For Boland Cavaliers:

Tries: Buckle, Constant

Cons: Croy, Jansen

Pen: Jansen

For Western Province:

Tries: Cloete, Williams, Reyneke

Con: Van Aswegen

Griquas 32-40 Blue Bulls

For Griquas:

Tries: Vermeulen, Schoeman, Penalty try, Hewitt, Westraadt

Cons: Vermeulen 2

Pen: Brummer

For Blue Bulls:

Tries: Swanepoel, Snyman 2, Venter, Liebenberg, Mastriet

Cons: Jantjies 3, Handre Pollard 2

Golden Lions 45-15 Leopards XV

For Golden Lions:

Tries: Van Rensburg, Breet, Cronje, R Coetzee, Whiteley, Volminck, A Coetzee

Cons: Cronje 2, Boshoff 3

For Leopards XV:

Tries: Dames, Van der Merwe

Con: Pretorius

Pen: Gilbert

Limpopo Blue Bulls 15-50 Griffons

For Limpopo Blue Bulls:

Try: Groenewald

Pens: Bronwyn Craill 3

For Griffons:

Tries: Steyn 3, Herbert 2, Hancke, Sithole, Nortje

Cons: Strydom 5

EP Kings 20-20 Pampas XV

For EP Kings:

Try: Soyizwapi

Pens: Dunlop 4, Van Breda

For Pampas XV:

Try: Montero

Pens: Madero 5

Pumas 62-0 Falcons

For Pumas:

Tries: Terblanche, Bouwer 2, Marx, Cassiem 3, Koch 2, Loock

Cons: Marx 6

Logs:

North Section:

1 Pumas P 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 Pts 5

2 Griffons P 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 Pts 5

3 Golden Lions P 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 Pts 5

4 Blue Bulls P 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 Pts 5

5 Griquas P 1 W 0 D 0 L 1 Pts 1

6 Leopards XV P 1 W 0 D 0 L 1 Pts 0

7 Limpopo Blue Bulls P 1 W 0 D 0 L 1 Pts 0

8 Falcons P 1 W 0 D 0 L 1 Pts 0

South Section:

1 Sharks P 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 Pts 5

2 Free State XV P 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 Pts 4

3 Western Province P 1 W 0 D 1 L 0 Pts 2

4 Boland Cavaliers P 1 W 0 D 1 L 0 Pts 2

5 Eastern Province Kings P 1 W 0 D 1 L 0 Pts 2

6 Pampas XV P 1 W 0 D 1 L 0 Pts 2

7 SWD Eagles P 1 W 0 D 0 L 1 Pts 0

8 Border Bulldogs P 1 W 0 D 0 L 1 Pts 0