The Airlink Pumas have left themselves with a mountain to climb in the Carling Currie Cup after they let a 23-point lead slip against the Sanlam Boland Kavaliers on Friday, August 22.

After a disappointing one-point loss in the fourth round against the Fidelity ADT Lions, the Pumas needed a bounce-back win against the Kavaliers to set up a decent chance of making the semi-finals. Kicking off at 17:00, it was the visitors who took an early lead through a James Tedder penalty.

They were reduced to 14 men in the 10th minute, which was shortly followed by a converted Ross Braude try that put the Pumas 7-3 ahead. Another Boland yellow followed five minutes later, leaving the Kavaliers with only 13 on the field for five minutes. The Pumas made good use of the numerical advantage, scoring two converted tries to lead 21-3. This was, however, where the first half action ended as the score remained the same at half-time.

Six minutes into the second half the game seemed to be put to bed as the Pumas crossed the whitewash once more. But Danrich Visagie missed the conversion and little did anyone realise this was a sign of things to come for the men in pink.

With the score 26-3 in the Pumas’ favour, they seemed to settle into a dangerous sense of calm. The Kavaliers were, however, hell-bent and scored their first try after 50 minutes. The conversion was missed, and the score was still 26-8, but the try was all they needed as they now smelled blood.

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They added their second try nine minutes later and the belief grew among the Bolanders, the score now 26-15. A third try followed when the Kavaliers bulldozed their way over the line to narrow the Pumas’ lead to 26-22. By now the Kavaliers were tasting blood and the momentum was firmly in their favour while the Pumas were in survival mode.

Fending off attack after attack, disaster finally struck for the Pumas with three minutes to go when left wing Darren Adonis was adjudged to have knocked the ball down deliberately only 5m from the line. He was handed a yellow card and the Kavaliers a penalty try – the final nail in the Pumas’ coffin. This completed their comeback and put them 29-26 ahead.

The Pumas attempted to stage one final redemption act after the restart, but it was not meant to be as they knocked the ball on inside the Kavaliers’ 22m area. The final whistle blew, and the Kavaliers’ spectacular 29-26 victory was secured.

With only two matches left to play, both away to the DHL Western Province and Hollywoodbets Sharks XV, the Pumas will now need to win both encounters with a bonus point and hope for a few other results to work in their favour if they are to have any chance of making the semi-finals. They take on WP at DHL Stadium in the Mother City at 19:20 on Saturday, August 30.