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Johannesburg - The Leopards have routed the Boland Cavaliers 55-23 in a Currie Cup Qualifying match at the Boland Stadium in Wellington on Saturday.
The visitors ran in nine tries to the hosts two and secured the all-important bonus point try on the stroke of half-time.
Dillon du Preez, the Leopards' live-wire scrumhalf, gave the visitors the perfect start by side-stepping two defenders to score after just six minutes.
Andre Pretorius converted from in front of the poles to hand the promotion-hopefuls a seven point lead.
Juan Language then rounded off a good opening period for the Leopards as the flanker fell over the tryline as the forwards powered their way to the line with a strong maul.
The former Springbok flyhalf was unable to convert from the touchline.
Three Morné Hugo penalties brought the home team back into the game as Boland trailed by three points but the hosts then fell apart with just five minutes remaining in the half. Smit took a quick tap penalty and charged up the field from his own tryline and offloaded to Sylvian Mahuza.
The Leopards recycled the ball well after the winger was brought down just short of the line.
Smit then fed Hoffman Maritz and the fullback sauntered under the poles unchallenged.
Luther Obi then crashed over in the left-hand corner to round off the first half with a 15-point lead as the Leopards captain, Pretorius, missed the conversion from a tight angle.
The second stanza began with a flurry as the Leopards ran riot with three tries in a 10-minute spell.
Mahuza scored his sixth try of the qualifying campaign when Pretorius floated a ball over the top and the winger trotted in to extend the visitors' lead.
Smit had an excellent game with some effective running and quick distribution, scored his second try of the match when Marnus Hugo was caught in possession behind the ruck.
Smit picked up the loose ball and sprinted down field to score under the poles and give Pretorius an easy conversion to extend the lead to 27 points.
Obi was on the score-sheet again a few minutes later as a perfectly-weighted Pretorius pop-pass sent the Nigerian-born winger under the poles.
Boland finally breached the Leopards' defense to score their first try through replacement flyhalf, Christian Rust.
Rust, who replaced Hugo shortly after the break, broke through a tackle after a pop-pass from Marnus Hugo, allowed the flyhalf to score under the poles.
The home side were to score again through their captain, Franzel September, but his try was sandwiched in between Languages' second try and the ninth try from Kobus de Kock, who again broke two tackles to score under the posts.
Scorers:
Boland Cavaliers: 23 - Tries: Christian Rust, Franzel September; Conversions: Eric Zana (2); Penalties: Hugo (3).
