CAPE TOWN – The Currie Cup has seen some unlikely jailbreaks over its illustrious history but yesterday Western Province wrote a new chapter on the subject when they somehow snuck home 40-39, despite being outplayed by the Cheetahs in every department of the game.
Maybe it was the luck of Newlands that did it for the Capetonians in this battle of the Currie Cup bottom dwellers, with the game having to be played at the old fortress because Cape Town Stadium was booked for another slightly more important rugby match.
Certainly Ruan Piennar’s Cheetahs will be scratching their heads for some time as to how they did not do the double on Province after having well beaten them two weeks ago in Bloemfontein.
It is true enough that coach John Dobson was testing his depth in this game by leaving a number of his big guns on the bench, and the likes of Even Roos and Neethling Fouche did make telling impacts when they came on.
Still, Province were so abjectly poor for three-quarters of the game that they had no right to win it. The Cheetahs played with pace and purpose whereas Province limply played behind the advantage line and their forwards engineered little meaningful phase play.
Flyhalf Tim Swiel doesn’t carry the ball to the line and make much happen for his backs but he does kick for goal beautifully. He is not the top points scorer in the Currie Cup for nothing and he did not miss a kick all afternoon, and that went a long way in rescuing his team.
Province started well, scoring after five minutes when Sergeal Petersen finished off a lovely counter-attack but they undid the good work by failing to deal with the kick-off and flyhalf Reinhardt Fortuin broke and put away Jeandre Rudolph for the score.
The Cheetahs were enjoying most of the possession and they bristled with menace. Scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar and flyhalf Fortuin created opportunities all afternoon and on 20 minutes wing Cohen Jasper finished off after juggling the ball in the air.
Swiel kicked two penalties against the run of play and then flank Nama Xaba went criminally offside at a ruck; the penalty was kicked to the corner and after a neat premeditated move, Rudolph dived over for his second try.
Swiel kicked a penalty earned from a scrum as half-time approached and at 21-16 Province were lucky to be only five points adrift, but them the Cheetahs rammed home the initiative when from a clever lineout involving Pienaar, wing Tian Meyer scored.
At 28-16 at the break, it looked ominous for WP and when Pienaar landed a penalty early in the second half, the home team was in deep trouble at 31-16.
Perhaps it was a bad omen for the Cheetahs when Rudolph, the best forward on the park, went off injured five minutes into the second half and not long after, the excellent Roos came on and he promptly scored off the back of a lineout drive.
As the game hit the three-quarter mark, Pienaar nudged his team into a 34-23 lead but at the same time the Cheetahs gave Province a lifeline when they could not handle the kick-off and, out of nothing, Seabelo Senatala scored under the crossbar. The soft seven-pointer mean it was all to play for at 34-30.
But the Cheetahs simply moved up a gear and quick hands down the backline put substitute wing Chris Smit through for looked to be the match-clinching try.
But Godlen Masimla scored for Province and then with six minutes to go, Swiel put his team into the lead and they hand on for the unlikeliest of wins.
Scorers
Western Province: Tries: Sergeal Petersen, Evan Roos, Seabelo Senatla, Godlen Masimla. Conversions: Tim Swiel (4). Penalties: Swiel (4).
Cheetahs: Tries: Jeandre Rudolph (2), Cohen Jasper, Tian Meyer, Chris Smit. Conversions: Ruan Pienaar (4). Penalties: Pienaar (2)
IOL Sport