Eastern Province too strong for SWD

In the last match of the 2014 Craven Week played in Middelburg, Mpumalanga in July 2014, Eastern Province beat South Western Districts 25-7, 27 years after they last won this prestigious match, a championship final in all but name.

Eastern Province thoroughly deserved to win their match. In fact in the first half, when they played into the wind, they promised to run away with it, leading 20-0 at the break as they were  and 25-0 two minutes into the second half.

But give the South Western Districts boys all credit. They played far better into the wind than they had done with the wind and won the half 7-5.

Eastern Province had been far and away the more creative of the two sides, sharper and more direct. They were the ones who won vital turnovers at tackles and the ones who were more secure in tackling.

South Western Districts battled to get possession in the first half. Their scrums were fragile and their line-outs malfunctioned despite having in their pack Eduan Zandberg, the tallest player at the Craven Week at 2,01m.  And he had André Smith, a mere centimetre shorter to back him up. Line-out losses happened at crucial times. The only place where South Western Districts had the better of getting possession was in the penalty count which was 10-1 in their favour in the second half. That meant that they could have scored more points had they not chased tries.

Eastern Province ran from the start. With the first ball they got, Athi Mayinje had a run. With the second ball they got, Athi Mayinje had a second run and then Keanu Vers had a darting run down the right. South Western Districts were unable to bring their star centre JT Jackson into the game.

There was no score on the board when André Smit late-tackled and tipped up Sipathu Pokamela after a scrum and was sent to the sin bin. In his absence Eastern Province scored 10 points.

Eastern Province's first score came after they had stolen a South Western Districts line-out. They went left, right and left again. Curwin Bosch, the elegant and effective Eastern Province flyhalf, chipped. South Western Districts could not control the ball and Athi Mayinje footed through collected the bounce and scored the opening try. 7-0 after 16 minutes.

for the second time in the match South Western Districts got the kick-off wrong and were back scrumming in midfield. It, astonishingly, happened a third time.

When South Western Districts were penalised at a tackle Curwin Bosch, who turned 17 three weeks ago, goaled. 10-0 after 21 minutes.

Eastern Province made headway through offloads by tight forwards and then with a run by Keanu Vers on the right which results in a five-metre line-out to Eastern Province. They mauled and captain Johan van Niekerk was credited with the try. 17-0 after 28 minutes.

A break by centre Heino Bezuidenhout put Eastern Province on the attack again and just before the break Curwin Bosch goaled his second penalty 20-0.

South Western Districts' line-out frailty gave Eastern Province their only score of the second half. Heino Bezuidenhout grubbered out for a line-out to South Western Districts 12 metres from their line. The trow was too high for Eduan Zandberg and went over the line-out where a kind bounce presented the ball to SF Nieuwoudt and the Framesby skipper charged over for the try. 25-0 after 37 minutes.

South Western Districts had the better of the rest of the match but did not score till the 66th minute.

They had a chance when the won a line-out – mirabile dictu – and rushed a maul at the Eastern Province line but were stopped for changing lanes. Twice they tapped penalties near the Eastern Province line but lost the ball to a turnover the second time. The attacked down the right and actually gave JT Jackson the ball. They had a five-metre scrum. JT Jackson broke but Eastern Province won a turnover. Boeta Human was over but was penalised for 'crawling'.

Then from a tapped penalty South Western Districts attacked and replacement scrumhalf Domenic Smit scored.

The final whistle went and signalled lots of Eastern Province hugging.

Man of the Match: There were several Eastern Province candidates – elusive, laughing Keanu Vers, direct Athi Mayinje, centres Jeremy Ward and Heino Bezuidenhout Curwin Bosch, flanks SF Bezuidenhout and Johan van Niekerk and the rest. They were clearly a united team whose players liked each other. Our choice was Heino Bezuidenhout who not only contained JT Jackson but made important inroads into South Western Districts defence early in the match.

The scorers:

For Eastern Province:

Tries: Mayinje, Van Niekerk, Nieuwoudt

Cons: Bosch  2

Pens: Bosch  2

For South Western Districts:

Try: Smit

Con: Jackson

Teams:

SWD: 15 Ruan Barnard, 14 Curtley Prins, 13 Johannes Duvenage, 12 John Jackson, 11 Shadward Fillies, 10 Christo Hamman, 9 Niven Langdown, 8 Nevada Jacobs, 7 Armand Heunis, 6 Luvuyo Ndevu, 5 Eduard Zandberg, 4 Adre Smith, 3 Andrew Kuhn, 2 Le Roux Baard, 1 Samuel Odendaal.

Replacements: 16 Vogien Talmaggies, 17 Wynand de Necker, 18 Roux Swart, 19 Anton Smit, 20 Christopher Roelofse, 21 Domenic Smit, 22 Immanuel Libbok.

Eastern Province: 15 Keanu Vers, 14 Athi Mayinje, 13 Jeremy Ward, 12 Heino Bezuidenhout, 11 Lunathi Nxele, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Rouche Nel, 8 Junior Pokomela, 7 Johann van Niekerk, 6 Stephanus Nieuwoudt, 5 Wihan Coetzer, 4 Stefan Janse van Vuuren, 3 Erich de Jager, 2 Alandre van Rooyen, 1 Lupumlo Mguca.

Replacements: 16 Robin Stevens, 17 Kaden Prince, 18 Roche van Zyl, 19 Morney Moos, 20 Nathan Augustus, 21 Tiaan Stander, 22 Darren Lottering.

Referee: Oregopotse Rametsi

Assistant referees: Rodney Bonaparte, Stephan Geldenhuys

TMO: Jason Jaftha