Gio Aplon: Two tries
Western Province maintained their 100 per cent record at the top of the Currie Cup table with a 54-13 win over the Pumas on Friday.
As happens in most Currie Cup matches these days, the big union simply dwarfed the small one in terms of pretty much everything. Province scored seven tries to two, wrapping up the bonus point before half-time in a blistering four-try blitz spanning a mere fourteen minutes. From then on, they cantered.
It took a while for the Cape Town juggernaut to get properly rolling, with a tetchy and physical opening twenty minutes finishing 9-3 to the hosts: three Willem de Waal penalties to one from Elgar Watts.
Then, on went the showlights. Pieter Louw finished off thirteen phases of possession to score the first and Gio Aplon produced one of those runs to score the second. De Waal converted both.
Aplon's third was a little less clear-cut, with the TMO requiring a little too much time than absoutely necessary to confirm he had dotted down before hitting the touchline.
But there was nothing doubtful about Anton van Zyl's rumble to the line two minutes before half-time, which De Waal converted to leave the hosts 35-3 ahead at the break.
As you can imagine, the second half was a bit slow to get going, but Province were the next to score again after a 20m driving maul allowed Louw to peel off and grab a second.
The Pumas took advantage of some lackadaisical play by Province to pull two tries back, one to Shaun Venter and one to Torsten van Jaarsveld.
But the home side, prodded into action by those scores, bounded back with two more, first Lionel Cronje picking off a stray pass and then JJ Engelbrecht bringing up the half-century at the end.
The scorers:
For Western Province:
Tries: Louw 2, Aplon 2, Van Zyl, Cronje, Engelbrecht
Cons: De Waal 3, Cronje 2
Pens: De Waal 3
For the Pumas:
Tries: Venter, Van Jaarsveld
Pen: Watts
Western Province :15 Conrad Jantjes, 14 Gio Aplon, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Paul Bosch, 11 Frikkie Welsh, 10 Willem de Waal, 9 Conrad Hoffmann, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Rynardt Elstadt, 6 Pieter Louw, 5 Anton van Zyl (c), 4 Adriaan Fondse, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Tiaan Liebenberg,1 JD Moller.
Replacements:16 Hanyani Shimange, 17 JC Kritzinger, 18 Martin Muller, 19 Pieter Myburgh, 20 Louis Schreuder, 21 Lionel Cronjé, 22 JJ Engelbrecht
Pumas:15 Carl Bezuidenhout, 14 Ashwin Scott, 13 Tiaan Marx, 12 Siviwe Magaba, 11 Allister Kettledas, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Jacques Coetzee, 8 Doppies le Roux, 7 Alwyn Bester, 6 Corné Steenkamp, 5 Marius Coetzer, 4 Willem Serfontein, 3 Ashley Buys, 2 Hannes Franklin, Ronnie Uys.
Replacements: 16 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 17 Dee-Jay Terblanche, 18 Dawie Steyn, 19 Andries Kruger, 20 Pieter Meyer, 21 Shaun Venter, 22 Ricardo Croy.
Referee: Pro Legoete
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