Griquas, Cheetahs bag Currie Cup wins

Griquas claimed a famous win against their more fancied opponents the Lions, by running out 41-31 winners in a Currie Cup match at Ellis Park on Wednesday afternoon.

It was a third big scalp picked up by the men from Kimberley in the competition after earlier beating Western Province and the Cheetahs.

The Lions made their task that much more difficult by being reduced to playing with 13 men for the last part of the game after EW Viljoen was red-carded at the beginning of the second half and replacement back Duncan Matthews was shown a yellow in the final 10 minutes.

Griquas wing Eduan Keyter was the star of the match, scoring four of his team’s five tries.

For the Lions, scrumhalf Morne van den Berg and prop Sti Sithole crossed for first half tries, with further five-pointers added in the second spell by Rabz Maxwane, Ruan Dreyer and at the death Travis Gordon.

This was the Lions’ first match in two weeks after last playing against the British and Irish Lions in the tour opener 14 days ago. In between there matches against the Sharks and Cheetahs were called off for various reasons.

They are back in action on Sunday when they face the Blue Bulls at Loftus Versfeld.

Cheetahs outplay WP

Meanwhile, in another high-scoring game in Bloemfontein on Wednesday evening, the Cheetahs surprised by comfortably getting the better of Western Province 38-21.

It was largely the same Western Province team, in the guise of the Stormers, that featured against the British and Irish Lions a week ago in Cape Town – and then they also copped a beating.

On this occasion, the home team ran in four tries, by Duncan Saal, David Brits, Cohan Jasper and captain and scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar, who also kicked excellently at goal.

For the visitors No 8 Evan Roos again showed he has a bright future ahead of him; he scored two tries. Thomas Bursey got Western Province’s third late in the game.

Both teams are back in action this weekend, with the Cheetahs hosting the Sharks on Saturday and the Pumas welcoming Western Province on Sunday.