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Cape Town - Griquas scored six tries to three to beat the Boland Cavaliers 46-22 in their Currie Cup clash in Kimberley on Thursday night.
This victory moves Griquas up to joint second with 19 points in the Currie Cup standings, having played one game more than the Cheetahs. The Sharks remain top on 20.
While much of the spotlight has fallen on the bigger teams, Griquas have quietly gone about their business winning four of their five games.
On this form they should be considered strong contenders for the play-offs and will add to the pressure on the Lions and Western Province who linger below them. While the home side were impressive, especially in the first half, Boland offered absolutely nothing on defence.
They were all over the place and there doesn’t seem to be sound defensive structures in place. Griquas thoroughly exploited it which allowed them to run in six tries.
Boland’s poor defence was reflected in the statistics - they missed 23 tackles of the 94 they had to make with 14 minutes left in the game. To put it bluntly, they just didn’t look like they wanted to tackle all night.
Griquas were completely dominant in the first half, enjoying the better possession and territory. They totally overpowered Boland in their own half and scored two tries for an early 18-3 lead. Boland flank Shaun Adendorff was sent off for a dangerous tackle and his team conceded another seven points in the 10 minutes he spent in the sin-bin.
Griquas were able to create loads of space on the outside but even when they took players on Boland struggled to make their one-on-one tackles. A perfect example of this was late in the first half when Elgar Watts received the ball deep in the Cavaliers 22. He threw a dummy pass before stepping inside and running through his opposite number Adriaan Carelse, who barely made an effort to stop him.
With a 25-3 half-time lead, Griquas secured the bonus-point in the 45th minute when Clinton Swart, who also contributed 16 points with his boot, ran over after poor defensive organisation by the visitors.
Boland scored three tries in the second half but they were never in the game and on this showing they will find it hard to win any more games in the competition.
Scorers
Griquas
Tries: Coertzen, Arendse, Watts 2, Swart, Wehr
Conversions: Swart 5
Penalties:Swart 2
Boland
Tries: Lewis, Pheiffer, Carelse
Conversions: Kotze, Carelse
Penalty: Kotze
Yellow card: Adendorff
Teams
Griquas
15 AJ Coertzen (c), 14 Ederies Arendse, 13 Johnathan Francke, 12 Clinton Swart, 11 Alshaun Bock, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Poerie van Rooyen, 8 Jason Fraser, 7 Sias Koen, 6 Wendal Wehr, 5 Jono Janse van Rensburg, 4 Wandile Putuma, 3 Chase Morison, 2 AJ le Roux, 1 Devon Martinus
Replacements: 16 Marius Fourie, 17 Liam Hendricks, 18 Mzwanele Zito, 19 Thabo Mabuza, 20 Renier Botha, 21 André Swarts, 22 Eric Zana
Boland Cavaliers
15 Theuns Kotze, 14 Sergio Torrens, 13 Robbie Louw, 12 Christopher Bosch, 11 Danwel Demas, 10 Adriaan Carelse, 9 Marnus Hugo, 8 Jacques Engelbrecht, 7 Shaun McDonald, 6 Shaun Adendorff, 5 Joubert Horn, 4 Johannes Kitshoff, 3 Enoch Mnyaka, 2 Clemen Lewis (c), 1 SP Wessels
Replacements: 16 Francois Esterhuysen, 17 Basil Short, 18 Wayne Wilschut, 19 Zandré Jordaan, 20 Gerhard Jordaan, 21 Craig Pheiffer, 22 Logan Basson
