Western Province rookie Jonathan Roche’s hattrick of tries on debut helped the Cape side bag their first Currie Cup win of the season yesterday by klapping the Griffons 64-15 in Welkom.
Coach John Dobson’s Province team ran in 10 tries to lift themselves to fifth place on the Currie Cup log.
But the Streeptruie made a skrikkerige start on a hard and dusty North West Stadium pitch resembling a vlakkie for grazing cattle.
And the Griffons – used to playing in those conditions – capitalised on Province’s nervousness and took a 10-0 lead after 14 minutes, as wing Andrew Kota slotted a penalty before converting prop Moango Ngundue’s try.
Ngundue won't forget his first Currie Cup try in a hurry 😤💥
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The tide, however, started to turn as WP began punishing the Welkom teams’ ill-discipline and unforced errors with wing Angelo Davids and inside centre Luke Burger scoring converted tries for a 14-10 lead after 24 minutes.
Province extended their lead before the half-hour mark as Clayton Blommetjies strolled in for the WPs’ third converted try before inside centre Roche got in on the action with his first five-pointer of the afternoon.
And after soaking up some late Griffons pressure, the WP players chanced their arm with some slick offloading, sending the speedy Davids away for his second try and a comfortable 33-10 half-time lead.
But the day belonged to Roche as he bagged two more tries in a dominant second-half performance by the Kapenaars as loose-forward CJ Velleman also got in on the try-scoring action with a brace as lock Hendre Stassen scored WP’s 10th try.
Griffons – Tries: Moango Ngundue and Christiaan Nel; Conversion: Andrew Kota; Penalty: Kota.
WP – Tries: Angelo Davids (2), Luke Burger, Clayton Blommetjies, Jonathan Roche (3), CJ Velleman (2) and Hendre Stassen; Conversions: Jurie Matthee (7).
WEEKEND’S OTHER CURRIE CUP RESULTS:
Round 3 | Results
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