Pumas back to winning ways after runaway victory in Welkom

After suffering their first loss of the season against the Cell C Sharks on April 7, the Airlink Pumas travelled to Welkom with one clear goal in mind: victory!

Jimmy Stonehouse’s team faced off against the NovaVit Griffons in their round six fixture today, April 16.

The defending Currie Cup champions dominated play early on, enjoying most of the ball position and had the upper hand in their attack.

Flanker Deon Slabbert opened the visitors’ account, with fly half Tinus de Beer easily adding the extras.

The Griffons pulled three points back through fly half Robbie Petzer, after a few minutes of up-and-down play, both teams taking turns on attack and defence.

Giovan Snyman displayed some fancy footwork to beat opponent Stephan de Jager to the try line, planting the ball neatly in the corner. De Beer was unsuccessful on this occasion.

Devon Williams is a man who has proven that he can be dangerous whenever he gets the ball in hand. Williams made his way to the try line after a maul movement and referee Aimee Barrett-Theron confirmed the five points with her whistle. After a TMO referral, the try, however, was overturned due to an error at the breakdown. A penalty kick was awarded in favour of the home side, but the conversion was unsuccessful.

A try from Pumas lock Malembe Mpofu kept the scoreboard ticking over.

Unfortunately for the Pumas, they had to play with a man down for the remainder of the first half. The eighth man, Kwanda Dimanza, was sent to the sin bin for a dangerous tackle.

Again, the Griffons were awarded a penalty kick, Petzer splitting the uprights this time around.

Heading into half-time, the Pumas led 19-6.

Outside centre Diego Appollis scored the Pumas’ bonus point try four minutes into the second half, but they toiled longer for their fifth, breaking down a grittier Griffons defence at the end of the third quarter for replacement hooker PJ Jacobs’s first try of the match.

Ruwald van der Merwe ran with strength to motor through for his team’s sixth try, and De Beer was on song with his conversions.

Nevermind the scoreboard, the Griffons suffered another setback in the crucial stages of the match when loose forward Sokuphunla Xakalashe was yellow-carded for a high tackle.

Shortly after this, Jacobs went over for his second and third tries, adding a hat-trick to his name.

A crafty try from replacement scrum half Chriswill September was followed by replacement fly half Brandon Thomson scoring to give the home team a thrashing at Down Touch Investments Stadium. The final score was 64-6.

The Pumas will return to Mbombela Stadium on Friday April 21 when they take on DHL Western Province at 16:30.