Griquas finish top of Currie Cup with seven-try win over Boland

MATCH REPORT: Griquas secured a home Currie Cup semifinal with a commanding 45-17 victory over Boland Cavaliers in Wellington, running in seven tries to finish the regular season in style.

With this win the Peacock Blues set up a meeting with the fourth-placed Lions next weekend.

They also did the Lions a massive favour, who was in danger of being kicked out of the top four had Boland clinched victory, but the Cavaliers were their own worst enemy with an error-riddled and ill-disciplined performance.

The hosts struck first after taking the game to Griquas from the kick-off, with Ashlon Davids slotting an early penalty to open the scoring.

The Cavaliers hustled to the breakdown and forced a penalty for holding on before kicking to touch to set up a lineout inside the Griquas’ 10-metre area. Griquas were then awarded a penalty for offside and opted to kick for the corner instead of taking the three points on offer to level the scores.

The visitors were clinical inside the strike zone, setting the maul in motion before Marco de Witt peeled away and powered through the tackle to score in the corner. The Griquas set the maul and got their players to pile in to propel their pack forward, but the ball was lost forward, and the Cavaliers got the feed-in on their 5m.

Boland conceded the infringement for a no-hook at the scrum, and the Griquas can pick up where they left off. The frustration was creeping into the Boland make-up and eventually too many infringements near their end zone saw Joshua Eras get his marching orders.

Liam Koen spotted a gap out wide to float a kick cross-field and into the hands of Dylan Maart, who finished off the corner. Griquas made it look easy as they remained dangerous with ball in hand, always advancing closer to the red zone.

Boland were scrambling to plug all the holes. They did manage to steal the ball in one of these phases, but it was turned over straight thereafter. The playing was level when Griquas’ Leon Lyons got shown a yellow for a high tackle (it remained a yellow), offering Boland some relief.

The question was if Boland could restrict their error rate and work their way back into an attacking position. When the dangerous Stefan Coetzee sprinted through the middle from his own half, the ball was hacked forward; however, it was lost over the line by Gurshwin Wehr.

In the following movement, Boland set up the ideal opportunity after a kick downfield. They came around the corner, and it was Sibusiso Sangweni who bashed over. The hosts had closed the gap to 10-12.

Some gutsy defense from Boland afforded them a penalty and they kicked for touch to set up a lineout on the Griquas 5m. However, they bungled that effort and it came to naught.

But they got back on the horse, went coast to coast, Eras nearly crossed and eventually the exciting Jayden Bantom sliced through to take Boland into the lead. However, they found themselves back on their own tryline, defending.

They survived the first onslaught, but Tiaan Lange was too strong, and he grabbed another five-pointer for Griquas. With this try, he became the top try scorer in the competition this season. Griquas were ahead again at the break, leading 19-17.

The Cavaliers attempted a quick restart with the goal-line drop-out, but the ball didn’t travel five meters, and Griquas were awarded the 5m feed. The Griquas got the shove on at the feed-in to shepherd the Boland pack backwards for Carel Els to place the ball on the line and score the try.

When Coetzee scored a few minutes later, Griquas had opened up the gap significantly and taken control of the game. Boland had more trouble coming their way when centre Jurick Lewis had to spend ten minutes in the bin for a high tackle.

Griquas were just piling on the points. They had kicked for the corner to set up an attacking lineout on the 5m and this time it was Lourens Oosthuizen who added his name to the scorers. Boland had a steep hill to climb to scrape their way back from a 17-40 deficit.

Hope was dwindling for the Cavaliers. And when Lunathi Nxele’s tackle effort resulted in yet another yellow card (upgraded to a permanent red) for Boland in the 71st minute – their third in the match – the writing was on the wall.

The lethal Griquas went back to work, resulting in Wehr scoring, sending the Peacock Blues into the semifinals with plenty of momentum.

Replacement flyhalf George Whitehead put the final nail in the coffin with a penalty kick to end proceedings.

The scorers:

For Boland:
Tries: Sangweni, Bantom
Cons: Davids
Pens: Davids 2

For Griquas:
Tries: De Witt, Maart, Lange, Els, Coetzee, Oosthuizen, Wehr
Cons: Koen 5
Pens: Whitehad

Yellow cards: Joshua Eras (Boland, 12’ – repeated infringements); Leon Lyons (Griquas 20’ – head contact); Lewis (Boland, 55’ – high tackle); Lunathi Nxele (Boland, 71’ – dangerous tackle)

Teams:

Boland: 15 Dominic Smit, 14 Xavier Mitchell, 13 Lunathi Nxele, 12 Jurick Lewis, 11 Jayden Bantom, 10 Ashlon Davids, 9 Godlen Masima, 8 Thurlow Marsh (captain), 7 Sibusiso Sangweni, 6 Gift Dlamini, 5 Marlyn Williams, 4 Johnre Stopforth, 3 Heiko Pohlman, 2 Joshua Eras, 1 Mthokozisi Gumede
Replacements: 16 Darnell Osuagwu, 17 Alistair Vermaak, 18 Laurence Victor, 19 Jeandre Leonard, 20 Kwanda Dimaza, 21 Bentley Geldenhuys, 22 Chris Smit, 23 James Tedder

Griquas: 15 Stefan Coetzee, 14 Dylan Maart, 13 Zane Bester, 12 Mnombo Zwelendaba, 11 Gurshwin Wehr, 10 Liam Koen, 9 Bobby Alexander, 8 Carel Els, 7 Marco de Witt, 6 Lourens Oosthuizen, 5 Albert Liebenberg (captain), 4 Malembe Mpofu. 3 JG Prinsloo, 2 Tiaan Lange, 1 Leon Lyons
Replacements: 16 Janco Uys, 17 Eddie Davids, 18 Ntobeko Shezi, 19 Derik Pretorius, 20 Carel van der Merwe, 21 Jack Hart, 22 Geore Whitehead, 23 Sako Makata

Referee: Griffin Colby
Assistant Referees: AJ Jacobs, Sean Muller
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen