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Pumas keep coach smiling

Nelspruit - Pumas coach Jimmy Stonehouse was full of praise his team after achieving their second victory in the Currie Cup competition, beating Griquas 33-15 in Nelspruit on Friday.

The visitors dominated possession in the first 40 minutes, and held a one point lead at the break, but the Pumas fought back in the second half to score four tries for a bonus point win.

"We didn't produce the best rugby in the first half. Griquas put us under a lot of pressure and they would have had a comfortable lead if they rounded off better," he said.

"But we came back stronger in the second half and produced good rugby that secured the bonus point."

The Pumas dominated the scrums though, where their pack of forwards outweighed Griquas by 50kg, and constantly had the visitors on the back foot. They did get pinned once or twice by referee Quinton Immelman, but Stonehouse was still pleased with his side's performance.

"We put in a lot of effort on the practice field and it shows. We scrummed well against the Sharks the week before, and against Griquas we had another good performance.

"It makes a coach happy and gives us good momentum going forward."

Griquas coach Hawies Fourie had little to smile about afterwards, with his side squandering many of the points that were up for grabs.

Griquas played an attacking brand of rugby and on many occasions progressed to within five metres of the line, only to see unforced errors, or an inability to finish off, kill their chances of building a lead.

"We delivered a poor performance with regards to finishing off the chances that we created," Fourie said.

"We didn't use our opportunities and in the end that reflected on the scoreboard. There is much we need to work on in the coming week before we take on the Free State Cheetahs next week at home."

Although they were on the back foot in the scrums, Fourie felt a couple of 50-50 calls by the referee decided the outcome of the battle up front.

"The Pumas do have a very good scrum, but I don't feel like we were dominated. A couple of times calls went against us and in other instances they worked in our favour," he said.

"I was happy with the intensity the players showed though. We played the same tempo rugby we produced against the Sharks and lacked against the Cheetahs. That is a positive we can build on."

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