The Golden Lions and Eastern Province remain unbeaten after day three of the Coca-Cola Craven Week in Port Elizabeth.
The Lions beat KwaZulu-Natal 17-8 and the hosts were 22-13 winners over Boland in the last two games of the day.
Both games were extremely tight, fought out mainly in the forwards, with little room for expansive rugby.
KwaZulu-Natal were very impressive in their opening encounter when they beat Free State 48-24. They were not allowed nearly as much room to move by the Lions and the Gauteng side were too strong for them up front. They dominated in the scrums and drove their opponents back in the loose. Hooker and Powerade Chosen One in the game, Malcolm Marx took some stopping and flanker Chris Massyn and lock Stephan Vermeulen were not far behind.
SA Schools flyhalf, Jaco Van der Walt kept the young Sharks pinned back with his accurate kicking.
Marx and Clinton Theron scored the Lions’ tries, Van der Walt kicked a penalty and two conversions.
KwaZulu-Natal’s impressive fullback scored a fine individual try for them and Robert Anderson kicked a penalty.
Eastern Province, following their big 41-17 win over the Valke on day one, had to dig deep for their 22-13 victory over Boland.
Boland have a huge pack and they threatened to place a stranglehold on the game. The score was locked at 10-all at half time and Boland went into a 13-10 lead with 20 minutes to go.
The classy EP backs were then given a sniff and leftwinger Selvyn Davids skinned the opposition, with no real room to move, to set up a try to break the deadlock. This was followed shortly by another try to make the game safe.
The EP tries were scored by Aidan Davids, Sergeal Petersen and Thembalathu Williams. Ernst Stapelberg kicked a penalty and two conversions.
Anzo Stubbs got the Boland try. Colin Willemse added a penalty and conversion and Corne Sharp a penalty.
In other action on day three, Free State got on the victory track with a 14-9 win over Border, while the Valke were impressive in beating the Leopards 38-5
Today’s Fixtures
9.30am Griquas Country v Border Country, 11am Limpopo v Zimbabwe, 12.30pm Eastern Province Country v Griffons, 2pm Western Province v SWD, 3.30pm Blue Bulls v Pumas.
(Pic: Pelo Mfini EP)
