Sanlam Boland Cavaliers coach, Hawies Fourie, has warned opposition teams they will find it tough to outrun his men on a heavy Boland Stadium pitch after beating the Toyota Cheetahs 37-35 in their Sunday showdown Currie Cup Premier Division opener.
The Cavas came back from the dead after almost blowing a 27-14 halftime lead to score two tries at the death to mark their return to the Currie Cup top flight with a gritty win.
Cavas Ran Cheetahs Ragged
And Fourie says of a heavy Boland stadium pitch helping them run the Cheetahs ragged in a dominant first half performance:
We wanted to apply pressure on them, we wanted to move them around on this field.This field is heavy and wet. Although it didn’t rain this week, we had a lot of rain the previous two weeks and we are training on this field, so part of the plan was to move the Cheetahs around in that first 20 minutes, which worked for us and then to apply pressure and feed off of their mistakes.
Boland scored three converted tries in the first half, with flyhalf Ashlon Davids dotting down twice and Springbok Sevens ace David Brits marking his Cavas debut with a five-pointer.
Two successful penalty goals by James Tedder made sure of a 13-point lead at the break, before the home side lost their momentum as the Cheetahs used their powerful scrum to force penalties.
Cheetahs Outmuscled Cavas In Second Half
Three tries followed from Boland’s ill-discipline at the set-piece where they conceded eight penalties and got reduced to 14 players as the Cheetahs took full advantage with Carel-Jan Coetzee, Gideon van der Merwe and Vernon Paulo crossing the chalk.
With less than 10 minutes left to play and Boland looking dead and buried, the home side rediscovered their first half mojo with Marcqiewn Titus scoring off of a well placed crosskick by Juan Mostert in the 79th minute. With no time left on the clock, Boland relinquished the shot at goal as Donovan Don attempted a quick drop goal to leave the home side with seconds left on the clock to try and steal the win from the final kick-off.
Cavas Clinched Victory At The Death
The Cavas rallied, launching an attack from inside their half, shifting the Cheetahs from side to side until eventually moving up to the halfway line.
Mostert set up a lineout from a penalty for a high shot on captain Marlyn Williams and began to shift the Cheetahs across the park with some more enterprising attack, which led to a second penalty and yellow card to Cheetahs hooker Paulo for a breakdown infringement.
A chance to kick for goal and settle for a 35-all draw was on offer, but, in true Cavas spirit, Mostert kicked for touch to set up one final attacking lineout.
After winning their lineout, Boland drove the Cheetahs to within inches of the line, with the referee’s arm out to award another penalty.
That advantage would, however, not be needed as Mostert rolled the dice, using another pinpoint cross-kick that found Xavier Mitchell out wide, with the replacement back jinking past two defenders before offloading to winger Don to dive over for the winning try.
Boland Eye 80-minute Performance
Although Fourie was happy with the win, he says of lamenting his team’s second half performance and letting the Cheetahs off the hook:
Unfortunately, the second half just went the other way and they applied the pressure on us and got a lot of scrum penalties, then scored those three tries from mauls. We will try and rectify those mistakes we can’t be in a position that we were and then the next moment you trail by seven or eight.
We took the foot off the pedal, we conceded quite a number of penalties just before the end. The penalty count just before the end was eight penalties to one against us. That broke our momentum, and we could not get anything going on the attack.
Then luckily in the last three to five minutes we got a bit of possession and the guys showed a lot of character keeping the ball through many phases playing from our own tryline and scoring from about 100 metres and a bit with plenty of phases in between.
It was hard work; we made it difficult for ourselves so we are going to go and have a look at what we can rectify.
Boland next travel to Kimberley to face the Suzuki Griquas in another Sunday Showdown, where they will eye a second win to strengthen their push for a spot in the Currie Cup semi-finals.
