An away victory to Eastern Province and a seven try spree by the Steval Pumas secured them quarterfinals spot in the SuperSport Rugby Challenge this weekend, while a hard-fought 46-41 win over the SWD Eagles in Oudtshoorn earlier today confirmed DHL Western Province as the leading team in the tournament after eight rounds of regulation play.
The Cape side had to work hard to beat SWD to finish the tournament undefeated, the only team to do so, and finished top of the South Section, while EP scored a dramatic 48-29 win over Boland in Bredasdorp on Saturday to sneak past Border into second place in the South Section.
The Eastern Province Kings will play against the Tafel Lager Griquas in their Quarter Final match (Pool Winner with fewest log points v Runner-up with fewest log points).
Boland Cavaliers 29 (17), EP Kings 48 (24)
- Boland Cavaliers – Tries: Vian van der Walt, Edwin Sass, Gerrit van Wyk, McMillan Muller. Conversions: Divan Nel (3). Penalty: Nel.
- EP Kings – Tries: Michael Willemse, Keanu Vers (2), Neil Maritz (3), Malcolm Jaer, Tango Balekile. Conversions: Pieter-Steyn de Wet.
Earlier on Saturday, the Steval Pumas scored seven tries in their 47-33 win over the Hino Valke to secure third sport in the North Section and due to a superior points’ difference, finished best of the third-placed teams, of which two will qualify as well.
The DHL WP (39 log pints) finished top in the South, followed by EP (25), while Tafel Lager Griquas (35) topped the Central section, with the Cell C Sharks XV (29) in second place. The Kimberley side scored a 49-35 win over the Down Touch Griffons on Friday, while the Natal team beat Toyota Free State XV 52-7 in Bloemfontein.
The Xerox Golden Lions XV (36), who dramatically edged past the Vodacom Blue Bulls (29) on Friday, topped the North Section, with their Pretoria neighbour finishing second, thanks to a better points’ difference that thee Steval Pumas, who also finished on 29 points. The Nelspruit side qualified as the next best team due to their number of log points.
The eighth-placed team came down to points’ difference. The Toyota Free State XV and Border both finished on 22 log points, but the Bloemfontein team (-48) sneaked in with the narrowest of margins due to a better points’ difference than that of Border (-49).
The Eastern Cape side, who had a bye this weekend first had to witness being pipped by EP on the log and then saw themselves losing out again to the central heartland side due to the points’ difference criteria.
The final venues and fixtures of the quarterfinals will be confirmed as soon as the logistics have been confirmed by all stakeholders.
The results and scorers of the final round of play are:
Steval Pumas 47 (28), Hino Valke 33 (14)
- Steval Pumas – Tries: Francois Kleinhans, Hennie Skorbinski, Emile Temperman, Frank Herne, Ryan Nell, Ruwellyn Isbell, Penalty Try. Conversions: Sias Ebersohn (4), Justin van Staden (2).
- Hino Valke – Tries: Christian Rust (2), Anrich Richter, Dwight Pansegrouw, Etienne Taljaard. Conversions: Rust (4).
Xerox Golden Lions 55 XV (15), Vodacom Blue Bulls 49 (23)
- Xerox Golden Lions – Tries: Kwagga Smith, Akker van der Merwe, Lourens Erasmus, Jacques van Rooyen, Marvin Orie, Penalty try, Michael Tambwe (2). Conversions: Shaun Reynolds (6). Penalty: Reynolds.
- Vodacom Blue Bulls – Tries: Pierre Schoeman, Duncan Matthews, Penalty try, Andre Warner, Dries Swanepoel, Jaco Visagie; Cons: Tian Schoeman (5); Pens: Schoeman (3).
Tafel Lager Griquas 49 (21), Down Touch Griffons 35 (11)
- Tafel Lager Griquas – Tries: Tertius Kruger, Enver Brandt (2), Koch Marx, Wilmar Arnoldi, Tiaan Meyer, Eric Zana. Conversions: George Whitehead (7).
- Down Touch Griffons – Tries: Carel Coetzee, Vuyo Mbotho (2), Louis Venter, Alrin Eksteen. Conversions: Wynand Pienaar (2); Penalties: Duan Pretorius (2).
Toyota Free State XV 7 (7), Cell C Sharks XV 52 (35)
- Toyota Free State XV – Tries: Joseph Dweba; Cons: Marco Mason; Pens: Michael van der Spuy
- Cell C Sharks XV 52 (35) – Tries: Christoffel van der Walt, Cobus Reinach (2), Stephan Coetzee, Daniel du Preez, Ettienne Ootshuizen, S’bura Sithole, Andre Esterhuizen. Cons: Garth April (6).
SWD Eagles 41 (17), DHL Western Province 46 (27)
- SWD Eagles – Tries: Teunis Nieuwoudt, Kirsten Heyns, Adri Jacobs, Quaid Langeveldt, Dillin Snel, Lodewyk Uys. Conversions: Leighton Eksteen (4). Penalties: Leighton Eksteen
- DHL WP – Tries: Nyasha Tarusenga, Eduard Zandberg, Craig Barry (3), Marcello Sampson (2), Bjorn Basson. Conversions: Brandon Thomson (2), Errol Jaggers
The final logs after eight rounds of play in the SuperSport Rugby Challenge are:
NORTH
| Pos | Teams | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | TF | TA | PTS |
| 1 | Xerox Golden Lions XV | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 485 | 208 | 277 | 69 | 26 | 36 |
| 2 | Vodacom Blue Bulls | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 376 | 240 | 136 | 53 | 33 | 29 |
| 3 | Steval Pumas | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 314 | 217 | 97 | 44 | 27 | 29 |
| 4 | Hino Valke | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 273 | 386 | -113 | 39 | 56 | 16 |
| 5 | Windhoek Draught Welwitschias | 8 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 140 | 537 | -397 | 19 | 82 | 6 |
CENTRAL
| Pos | Teams | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | TF | TA | PTS |
| 1 | Tafel Lager Griquas | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 335 | 213 | 122 | 47 | 30 | 35 |
| 2 | Cell C Sharks XV | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 288 | 150 | 138 | 43 | 19 | 29 |
| 3 | Toyota Free State XV | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 253 | 301 | -48 | 33 | 40 | 22 |
| 4 | Leopards | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 199 | 276 | -77 | 27 | 39 | 17 |
| 5 | Down Touch Griffons | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 227 | 362 | -135 | 32 | 54 | 13 |
SOUTH
| Pos | Teams | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | TF | TA | PTS |
| 1 | DHL WP | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 312 | 171 | 141 | 46 | 23 | 39 |
| 2 | EP Kings | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 235 | 222 | 13 | 34 | 30 | 25 |
| 3 | Border | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 215 | 264 | -49 | 29 | 37 | 22 |
| 4 | Boland | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 193 | 198 | -5 | 24 | 28 | 18 |
| 5 | SWD | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 183 | 283 | -100 | 25 | 40 | 9 |
The provisional quarter-final line-up for the SuperSport Rugby Challenge is as follows (venues and kick-off times to be confirmed):
- QF1 — DHL Western Province v Toyota Free State Cheetahs XV (Pool Winner with most log points v Third-placed Team with fewest log points)
- QF2 — Xerox Golden Lions XV v Steval Pumas (Pool Winner with second-most log points v Third-placed Team with most log points)
- QF3 — Tafel Lager Griquas v Eastern Province Kings (Pool Winner with fewest log points v Runner-up with fewest log points)
- QF4 — Cell C Sharks XV v Vodacom Blue Bulls (Runner-up with most log points v Runner-up with second-most log points).
Alan Straton
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