Falcons and Griffons get home comforts for play-offs
WRAP: The Falcons and Griffons will host the First Division semifinals next weekend after the top two teams finished the league phase of the competition with solid victories, while the Leopards edged into the top four with a bonus-point victory over the SWD Eagles in George.
The men from North West will now travel to Kempton Park for their semifinal against the table-topping Falcons, while Eastern Province will be in action in Welkom against the Griffons, who finished second on the log.
The Falcons did very well in a cold, wet and windy Gqeberha to beat Eastern Province by 22-3 on Friday, with Mbembe Payi (fullback) scoring two first-half tries for the East Randers.
The visitors led 17-0 at the break and managed to keep the Elephants at bay in the second half, as the conditions worsened. It was the first game in which they didn’t grab a try-scoring bonus point, but the crucial victory would have made up for that.
While it was the Falcons’ first win over EP in Nelson Mandela Bay since 2017, JP Immelman will be especially pleased with his team’s defence as they managed to keep the hosts tryless.
The Griffons ran riot in Welkom to beat the Border Bulldogs by 80-21 in their final pool match, scoring 12 tries in the process to ensure they enter the semifinals high on confidence.
Willem van den Hever and Quan Eymann each scored a hat-trick of tries for the hosts, while Andrew Kota contributed 30 points with two tries and 10 conversions.
The Griffons, who scored at a point per minute, led by 40-14 at the break and doubled their points’ tally in the second half.
In George, the Leopards started very well and led 19-7 at the break after outscoring their hosts by three tries to one, but the Eagles fought back to level the scores with two tries in the first 15 minutes after the break.
However, the Leopards scored their fourth try with just under 20 minutes to go and hung on to their lead to move up to fourth from fifth on the log in the final round, and in doing so, knocked SWD out of the title race.
Venues and kick-off times of the two semifinals will be confirmed in due course.
See below for the scores and scorers:
Eastern Province 3-22 Falcons
The scorers:
For EP:
Pen: Shirwin Cupido
For Falcons:
Tries: Mbembe Payi 2, Wernich Aucamp
Cons: Ezrick Alexander, Keagan Fortune
Pen: Fortune
Griffons 80-21 Border Bulldogs
The scorers:
For Griffons:
Tries: Willem van den Hever 3, Quan Eymann 3, Jandre de Beer, Andrew Kota 2, Simon Westraadt, Mango Ngundue, Kyle Cyster
Cons: Kota 10
For Border:
Tries: Soso Xakalashe, Hlumelo Pantyo, Ryan Maree
Cons: Maxwell Klaasen 3
SWD Eagles 19-26 Leopards
The scorers:
For SWD:
Tries: Marquit September, Hlomla Zondani, Clive Kruger
Cons: Keegan Schaefer 2
For Leopards:
Tries: Ghudian van Reenen, Zack Serfontein, Indiphile Tyeda, Andre Grobler
Cons: Shaun-Christian Baxter 3
