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Griquas bash Boland

Saturday 06th September 2008

Griquas defeated the never-say-die Boland Kavaliers 48-22 in the crucial bottom-of-the-table Currie Cup match played at Absa Park in Kimberley on Saturday.

After Boland full-back Justin Peach had put his team 3-0 up with a penalty in the fourth minute, the home team responded with two well-worked converted tries - the first by lightning-fast right-wing Bjorn Basson (sixth minute) and the second by number eight Heinrich Stride (15th minute) following excellent support play between backs and forwards.

Boland struck back with a try by prop WP Nel in the 24th minute and with Peach kicking the conversion, it was 14-10 to Griquas.

In the space of two minutes (the 32nd and 34th minutes) Basson scored his second try of the half and then made another scored by left-wing MJ Mentz. With fly-half Conrad Barnard kicking another two conversions, Griquas, a bonus point to the good, led 28-10.

Early in the second-half, Boland skipper centre Piet van Zyl's opportunistic try, also converted by Peach, made it 28-17 to Griquas with 30 minutes remaining.

Barnard's well-struck, angled penalty from long-range gave the home team a handy 14 point lead which, midway through the half, became 21 points when left-wing Mentz rounded off a fine movement with his second try.

Basson completed a superb attacking match when, following up scrum-half Sarel Pretorius' cleverly-placed kick into the corner, he gathered the ball at speed and dived over in the corner to complete his hat-trick.

With Griquas now leading 43-17 the Bolanders threw caution to the wind, running the ball at every opportunity.

Replacement left-wing Renfred Dazel scored the Bolanders third try in the 34th minute but this was off-set two minutes from the final whistle by Griqua replacement scrum-half Tobie Botes' five-pointer to make the final score Griquas 48 Boland 22 - and a very valuable five points for the home team.

The scorers:

For Griquas:
Tries: Basson 3, Mentz 2, Stride, Botes
Cons: Barnard 5
Pen: Barnard

For Boland Kavaliers:
Tries: Nel, Van Zyl, Dazel
Cons: Peach 2
Pen: Peach

Griquas: 15 Riaan Viljoen, 14 Bjorn Basson, 13 Barry Geel, 12 Herkie Kruger, 11 MJ Mentz, 10 Conrad Barnard, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Heinrich Stride, 7 Stephan Gerber, 6 Gareth Krause (c), 5 Brendon Snyman, 4 Wayne van Heerden, 3 Bees Roux, 2 Hans van Dyk, 1 Regardt Dreyer.
Replacements: 16 James van der Walt, 17 Ruaan du Preez, 18 Rohan Kitshoff, 19 Jacques Lombaard, 20 Tobie Botes, 21 Jaco Bekker, 22 Naas Olivier.

Boland: 15 Justin Peach, 14 Cornel Hendricks, 13 Piet van Zyl (c), 12 Lionel Cornelius, 11 Alvin Hugo, 10 Elgar Watts, 9 Hugo Marnus, 8 Dries vanSchalkwyk, 7 Angelo Brinkhuys, 6 Zolani Mofu, 5 Bradley Mockford, 4 Nico Esterhuyse, 3 WP Nel, 2 Harry Vermaas, 1 Janro van Niekerk.
Replacements: 16 Peter Wium, 17 Jean Botha, 18 Cecil Kemp, 19 Whalied Heyns, 20 Neil Papier, 21 Deon Scholtz, 22 Renfred Dazel.

Referee: Deon van Blommestein
Touch judges: Jaco Peyper, Cobus Wessels
Assessor: Thuso Mngqibisa