Griquas hold on for first Currie Cup victory

Griquas secured their first Currie Cup victory of the 2015 season when they
held on against a late charge from the Pumas to win 32-15 in Kimberley on Saturday.

The visiting side scored two tries in the final quarter of the match, but most
of the damage was done in the fist 40 where they failed to penetrate the Griquas
defence.

During the first-half Griquas scored 15 points while the men from Mpumalanga
had to settle for a solitary penalty by Justin van Staden which came as early
as the sixth minute.

Eighthman Carel Greeff scored the first try of the match in the eighth minute
– capitalising after Riaan Viljoen had done exceptionally well to gather
an up-and-under.

Greeff scored his second five-pointer in the 22nd minute following a passage
of good ball retention by the home side.

Trailing 15-3 the Pumas had their work cut out, but were dealt a heavy blow
when livewire scrumhalf Faf De Klerk was sent-off in the 31st minute for taking
Greeff out illegally at breakdown.

The scores would, however, remain the same until De Klerk served out his 10-minute
sentence.

After Clinton Swart slotted a penalty to make it 18-3, Jacquin Jansen dotted
down in the 46th-minute to effectively take the game away from the Pumas who
were always going to fight to the final whistle.

The visitors eventually found their way over the try-line in the 68th minute
when flank Marnus Schoeman reaped the rewards of sustained pressure (25-10)
and his team was given some hope of staging a brilliant comeback when Rosko
Specman went over in the 71st minute.

Their efforts were nullified by replacement Danie Mienie in the final exchanges
as he went over to hand Griquas the four-try bonus point with only a minute
to spare.

Final Score Griquas 32 (15) Pumas 15(3)

Scorers

Griquas
Tries: Carel Greeff (2), Jacquin Jansen, Danie Minie
Conversions: Clinton Swart (3)
Penalties: Swart (2).

Pumas
Tries: Marnus Schoeman, Rosko Speckman
Conversion: Justin van Staden
Penalty: Van Staden.

Match Official
Referee: Jaco van Heerden

Teams

Griquas

15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Ruhan Nel, 13 Jonathan Francke, 12 Clinton Swart, 11 Jacquin
Jansen, 10 Francois Brummer, 9 Tian Meyer (c), 8 Carel Greeff, 7 Jonathan Adendorf,
6 Johan Wessels, 5 Hugo Kloppers, 4 Jaco Nepgen, 3 Stephan Kotze, 2 AJ Le Roux,
1 Steph Roberts.

Replacements: 16 Martin Bezuidenhout, 17 Danie Mienie, 18 Ewald Van Der Westhuizen,
19 Jonathan Janse Van Rensburg, 24 Wendal Wehr, 21 Dylan Frylinck, 22 Gouws
Prinsloo.

Pumas

15 Hoffman Maritz, 14 Bernardo Botha, 13 Jerome Pretorius, 12 Deon Helberg,
11 Rosco Spekman, 10 Justin van Staden, 9 Faf de Klerk (k), 8 Jason Colin Fraser,
7 Uzair Cassiem, 6 Marnus Schoeman, 5 Giant Mtyanda 4 Rudi Mathee, 3 De-Jay
Terblanche, 2 Francois du Toit, 1 Corne Fourie.

Replacements: 16 Frank Herne, 17 Khwezi Mona, 18 Marius Coetzer, 19 Jaco Bouwer,
20 Reynier van Rooyen, 21 Henne Skorbinski, 22 Wilmaure Louw.