Leopards close but no cigar

The Pumas hung on to beat the winless Leopards 27-26 in their Currie Cup match at Olën Park in Potchefstroom on Friday.

The Pumas hung on to beat the winless Leopards 27-26 in their Currie Cup match at Olën Park in Potchefstroom on Friday..

The visitors scored four tries to two but had the good fortune to have a conversion awarded that looked to be off target – and that could have made the difference as the losers slumped to their 22nd defeat in 23 matches in the Premier Division of the 2009 and 2010 Currie Cup competitions.

The win was the Pumas' third of the season while the Leopards remain winless.

The home side would have been especially disappointed with conceding the two early tries as they had more to do with defensive lapses than too much industry from the attackers.

Slowly but surely the Leopards clawed their way back into the contest and they grabbed their first try, through industrious scrum-half Theo van Wyk, in the 15th minute.

Ten minutes later the hosts grabbed the lead for the first and only time in the match thanks to a penalty from fly-half Clayton Durand.

However the Pumas sneaked backed into the lead courtesy of a Pretorius penalty before Johan Jackson stretched the gap to seven points with a try five minutes before the break.

The Pumas began the second half well when centre Tiann Meyer, rounded off a move to dot down for a converted try.

But the Leopards then scored a good try through speedy winger Dumisani Matyeshana and two penalties from Durand left them one-point short of their opponents with eight minutes of the match left.

The scorers:

For Leopards:
Tries: Matyeshana, Van Wyk
Cons: Durand 2
Pens: Durand 3
Drop: Durand

For Pumas:
Tries: Pretorius, Jackson, Venter, Meyer
Cons: Pretorius 2
Pen: Pretorius

The teams:

Leopards: 15 Danie Dames, 14 Deon Scholtz, 13 Jovan Bowles, 12 Walter Venter, 11 Dumisani Matyeshana, 10 Clayton Durand, 9 Theo van Wyk, 8 Riaan Swanepoel, 7 Reginald Kember, 6 Wilhelm Koch (c), 5 Anthonie Gronum, 4 Brad Mockford, 3 Barend van der Walt, 2 Gavin Williamson, 1 Bennie Uys.
Replacements: 16 Marthinus van der Westhuizen, 17 Johan Coetzee, 18 Edrich Linde, 19 Christo van Niekerk, 20 Divan Kotze, 21 Cecil Dumond, 22 Cornelius Rautenbach.

Pumas: 15 Nicky Kritzinger, 14 Braam Pretorius, 13 Shaun Venter, 12 Ashwin Scott, 11 Allister Kettledas, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Tian Meyer, 8 Christo le Roux, 7 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 6 Corne Steenkamp, 5 Marius Coetzer, 4 Andries Kruger, 3 Ashley Buys, 2 Hannes Franklin (c), 1 Ronnie Uys.
Replacements: 16 Dee-Jay Terblanche, 17 Dawie Steyn, 18 Willem Serfontein, 19 Jaco Bouwer, 20 Ricardo Croy, 21 Vainon Willis, 22 Johan Jackson.

Referee: Pro Legoete