Province put 60 past Pumas

Western Province had no problem in taking a bonus point off the Pumas on Friday, winning 62-10 in Nelspruit in an eight-try romp.

They came, they saw, they ran in eight tries. Western Province had no problem in taking a bonus point off the Pumas on Friday, winning 62-10 in Nelspruit.

This win closes the gap on log leaders, the Sharks, to only four points with the men from Durban still to face the Cheetahs in
Durban.

Fly-half Willem de Waal gave Province and early 6-0 lead. A long range penalty conversion by fly-half Elgar Watts reduced the deficit to only three, but Province were the dominating force while most of the tackling had to be done by the hosts.

The frantic pace at which the opening stages of the match was contested eventually caught up with the Pumas and they had to watch WP wing JJ Englebrecht score his team's first of three five pointers in the first half.

De Waal converted and the Pumas realised that they would have to start controlling the tempo of the match much better than they had up to that point.

Province continued to dominate territorially but despite a several great opportunities they had to wait until the 27th minute to increase their lead.

A smart break by Springbok centre Jean de Villiers who squandered two potential scores earlier – resulted in the second try of the evening and after De Waal converted the visitors had a 17 point lead.

The only other chance the Pumas had to add to their total came in the 32nd minute, but on this occasion Watts pulled it to the left of the upright.

A few nifty runs by Pumas scrum-half Hendrik van der Nest was never going to be enough to pierce the Cape Town side's defence and by remaining patient in their build-up they were eventually rewarded when fellow Bok centre Juan de Jongh went over for an outstanding five-pointer.

With the 27-3 lead Province enjoyed after the first half, they started the second with the same intensity and once again the interplay between forwards and backs proved to be too much to handle for the men from Mpumalanga.

Their control at the contact situation made it an even tougher challenge for the home side who were making more unforced errors as the match progressed.

Wing Gio Aplon scored the bonus point try in the 57th minute and signs of fatigue started to become more evident in the Pumas' defensive structures.

From a Pumas perspective the highlight of the match came when Watts managed to sneak past two Province defenders to dive over for their only five-pointer of the match which he also converted.

But as the match progressed the visitors showed why they are still contenders for the top log positions as flank Francois Louw stretched over for his first of two tries with Aplon scoring his second of the night minutes later.

With 18 minutes left to play Province were in front 48-10 but they remained as eager to score tries when their replacements came on as they were in the opening stages of the match.

The Pumas tried their best to retain possession for longer periods but could not get over the advantage line and instead had to watch the visitors score from a well executed rolling maul.

That try was Louw's second of the evening, but unfortunately for the hosts it wasn't over yet as replacement Paul Bosh celebrated his return to action with a try two minutes into injury time.

The scorers:

For Pumas:
Try: Watts
Con: Watts
Pen: Watts

For Western Province:
Tries: Engelbrecht, De Villiers, De Jongh, Aplon 2, Louw 2, Bosch
Cons: De Waal 5, Van Aswegen 3
Pens: De Waal 2

Pumas: 15 Johan Jackson, 14 Conrad Marais, 13 Shaun Venter, 12 Ricardo Croy, 11 Allister Kettledas, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Hendrik van der Nest, 8 Christo le Roux, 7 Jaco Bouwer, 6 Corné Steenkamp (c), 5 Andries Kruger, 4 Eduan van der Walt, 3 Ashley Buys, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 1 Ronnie Uys.
Replacements:16 Hannes Franklin, 17 Dawie Steyn, 18 De-Jay Terblanche, 19 Willem Jacob Serfontein, 20 Juan Visser, 21 Ashwin Scott, 22 Vainon Willis

Western Province:15 Conrad Jantjes , 14 JJ Engelbrecht, 13 Juan De Jongh, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Gio Aplon, 10 Willem de Waal, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Francois Louw, 6 Pieter Louw, 5 Anton van Zyl (c), 4 Adriaan Fondse, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Deon Fourie, 1 Wicus Blaauw.
Replacements:16 Hanyani Shimange, 17 JC Kritzinger, 18 De Kock Steenkamp, 19 Nick Koster, 20 Conrad Hoffmann, 21 Gary van Aswegen, 22 Paul Bosch

Venue: Puma Stadium, Witbank
Referee: Andrew Lees