Griquas scored eight tries in their 59-24 win against the Free State Cheetahs in Kimberley on Saturday, writes SIMON BORCHARDT.
A full-strength Free State would have expected to pick up five log points against a Griquas team rooted to the bottom of the Currie Cup log. However, with their best team having beaten the Ospreys in the Pro14 the night before, the Cheetahs’ second-stringers were always going to face an uphill battle in Kimberley.
Free State looked to be in with a shout when they scored a try early in the second half to make it 24-24, but Griquas lifted their game and scored another five tries to secure only their third win of the season.
The Cheetahs remain second on the Currie Cup log, but will slip to third if Western Province beat the Blue Bulls at Loftus on Sunday. Griquas are still last, but will take a lot of confidence from this performance, even it if came against weakened opposition. Centre Tertius Kruger and wing Kyle Steyn, in particular, were superb.
The hosts dominated the opening exchanges of this match and signalled their attacking intentions when they kicked a penalty to touch in search of a try. When they were awarded another penalty, George Whitehead made as if he was going for touch again, but instead took a quick tap and put Sias Koen over for a converted try.
An excellent counter-attack from inside Free State’s 22 should have resulted in a try at the other end of the field, but Robbie Petzer knocked over the line. It didn’t prove too costly, though, as Joseph Dweba picked up the ball from the back of a ruck soon after and raced away for his first Currie Cup try.
The visitors struck again in the 15th minute when a sustained attack finished with Petzer running around a defender and passing inside to Chris Dry. Griquas appealed for obstruction from Dry before the pass had been made, but the referee said there had been no contact and the try stood.
Griquas responded with two converted tries in quick succession to take a 21-14 lead. First, Christiaan Meyer took a quick penalty tap and darted over to score. Then, Kruger broke away from inside his half, found Meyer and regained possession. The outside centre was tackled just short of the line, but able to pop a pass to Wendal Wehr.
Dennis Visser paid the price for repeated Free State infringements when he was yellow-carded, but the teams exchanged penalties only while he was off the field.
It took the Cheetahs’ just over two minutes of the second half to level the scores. Zee Mkhabela was high-tackled short of the line, lost the ball backwards and Cecil Afrika picked it up to score.
Kruger then had a try ruled out after TV replays showed a clear forward pass from Conway Pretorius in the build-up, but the midfielder did get his side’s bonus-point try in the 50th minute to make it 31-24.
Abraham le Roux went over from a lineout driving maul, and when Enver Brandt had the pace to evade Afrika, the hosts were out to a 21-point lead with 13 minutes remaining.
Griquas weren’t done yet, though, with late tries from Pretorius and Adriaan Coertzen wrapping up a convincing win.
Griquas – Tries: Sias Koen, Christiaan Meyer, Wendal Wehr, Tertius Kruger, Abraham le Roux, Enver Brandt, Conway Pretorius, Adriaan Coertzen. Conversions: George Whitehead (5), Andre Swarts (3). Penalty: Whitehead.
Free State Cheetahs – Tries: Joseph Dweba, Chris Dry, Cecil Afrika. Conversions: Robbie Petzer (3). Penalty: Petzer.
Griquas – 15 Adriaan Coertzen (c), 14 Kyle Steyn, 13 Tertius Kruger, 12 Johnathan Francke, 11 Enver Brandt, 10 George Whitehead, 9 Christiaan Meyer, 8 Conway Pretorius, 7 Sias Koen, 6 Wendal Wehr, 5 Floris Pelser, 4 Sintu Manjezi, 3 Stephan Kotze, 2 Abraham le Roux, 1 Liam Hendricks.
Subs: 16 Marius Fourie, 17 Louwrens Strydom, 18 Wandile Putuma, 19 Shaun McDonald, 20 DeWet Kruger, 21 Renier Botha, 22 Andre Swarts.
Free State Cheetahs – 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Vuyani Maqina, 13 Ali Mgijima, 12 Lloyd Greeff, 11 Cecil Afrika, 10 Robbie Petzer, 9 Zee Mkhabela, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Chris Dry (c), 6 Daniel Maartens, 5 Carl Wegner, 4 Dennis Visser, 3 Erich de Jager, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Gert Coetzee.
Subs: 16 Reinach Venter, 17 Andrew Kuhn, 18 Jeremy Jordaan, 19 Nicolaas Immelman, 20 JP Smith, 21 Stephan Janse van Rensburg, 23 JW Jonker.
Photo: Johan Pretorius/Gallo Images
