The Leopards and Pumas are now the only unbeaten teams in the Currie Cup 1st division, while EP and Boland bounced back from their first round defeats.
The Leopards started their match against the Valke with a hat-trick of tries by right wing Edmar Marais in the first 20 minutes at Olen Park, which laid the foundation for their 50-25 bonus point victory. The Valke, however, fought back with scrumhalf Anrich Richter making a sniping run for their first try in the 27th minute to add to Wesley Roberts’ two penalties for a 22-13 half-time score. The hosts then took back control of proceedings in the second half and ran riot with three tries in nine minutes to push the match out of reach for the Valke. The visitors salvaged some pride thanks to two tries in the last quarter, but SA U20 fullback Sylvian Mahuza’s debut try took the Leopards to 50 points. Flyhalf Adriaan Engelbrecht also had a memorable day with the boot thanks to his six conversions and one penalty for a 15 point haul.
The Pumas had to fight all the way for their 23-16 victory in an arm-wrestle of a match against Border at the Mbombela Stadium. The Bulldogs produced a fine first half performance with hooker Dean Muir opening up the scoring with a try in the 16th minute thanks to a clever box kick by scrumhalf Sinovuya Nyoka. A penalty by Bulldogs’ fullback Karlo Aspeling and two by Pumas flyhalf Carl Bezuidenhout late in the first half, however, saw the Bulldogs take a 10-6 lead at the break.
The second half was equally tense as the forwards continued their domination. Aspeling scored the first points of the second half thanks to another penalty, but this was cancelled out as Pumas’ flank Jaco Bouwer crashed over to take the score to 16-13. Another penalty by Aspeling levelled the scores at 16-16 with 13 minutes play. But the Pumas had the last say two minutes from time as the forwards put in the hard yards on attack to work Corné Steenkamp into position for the winning try.
Boland showed character in their clash against SWD to overturn a 14-7 deficit at the break for their invaluable 22-17 away-victory.
In Welkom, a fantastic first-half showing by EP earned them their bonus point try before the break and an encouraging 29-14 half-time lead, hence being comfortably placed to weather a second-half fight back by the Griffons, securing a 37-21 victory.
First Division Round 2 results:
Griffons 21-37 EP
Pumas 23-16 Border
SWD 17-22 Boland
Leopards 50-25 Valke
