Rugby
Griquas, FS & Leopards all knocked out─── 08:54 Mon, 18 May 2015
The 2015 Vodacom Cup semi-finalists have been decided after this past weekends’ quarter-final, with the Northern section of the competition proving to be the more dominant and none of the central South African teams making the last four.
It was heartbreak for the the defending champions, the Griquas in Kimberley with the in-form side getting knocked out.
The five-time champions fell short at the ever difficult GWK Park, with the Pumas beating Peter Engeldows’ chargers 28-14.
The side from the Lowveld ran in three tries as opposed to the two by the home side.
Wiseman Kamanga and AJ le Roux crossed the white-wash for the Peacock Blues, while Bernardo Botha, Jason-Colin Fraser and John Herbst dotted down for MJ Mentzs’ side.
In Pretoria the central South African teams’ woes continued with the Blue Bulls putting in a dominated performance to knock the Toyota Free State XV out of the competition.
With the Bulls fielding a star laden side, the result hardly came as a surprise with the flyhalf Tian Schoeman scoring 22 points as the home side whipped the Free State 44-21.
Former U20 Springbok, William Small-Smith, who hails from Bloemfontein ran in a hat-trick of tries at Loftus Versfeld, while his captain during the 2012 IRB Junior World Championships, Wiaan Liebenberg and Schoeman is crossed the line once.
Captain Joubert Englebrecht and the Shimlas star flanker Gerhard Olivier each dotted down for Rory Duncans’ team, with Niel Marais slotting a conversion and Willie du Plessis adding three penalties to the Free State tally.
Western Province will be the only South Section team in the last four, with the men in blue-and-white hoops dispatching the Leopards with a fairly comfortable 47-22 victory at City Park in the Mother City.
The 2012 champions scored seven tries with Justin Benn scoring a brace for Province, while Godlen Masimla, Robert du Preez, Jaco Taute, Tapiwa Tsomondo and former Grey College stalwart EW Viljoen each scored once.
The Leopards tries came via a double by Sergio Torrans and one by the 2015 Varsity Cup Player of the Tournament, Rhyno Smith of NWU-Pukke.
In Johannesburg, the Golden Lions were made to sweat by a determined South Western Districts Eagles, but two conversions, four penalties and a drop-goal by Springbok flyhalf Marnitz Boshofff ultimately proved to be too much for Bevan Fourteins’ boys.
The Lions will host the first semi-final when they tackle the Pumas on Friday afternoon at Emirates Airline Park, Johannesburg with kick-off at 16:30. This will be followed by the second semi which will be somewhat of a mini North-South derby, with the unbeaten Western Province at home to the Blue Bulls in Cape Town.
A venue for the match is yet to be confirmed however the match will kick-off at 19:10.
Morgan Piek / OFM News
