The Airlink Pumas had to dig deep to earn a one-point victory over DHL Western Province at Mbombela Stadium this evening, Friday April 21.

The match was a titanic battle between two evenly matched teams. Pumas’ fly half, Brandon Thomson, slotted a penalty kick in the 76th minute to give the home team a 26-25 win.

The cliché of rugby being a physical game was rocketed into another dimension with the medical staff of both teams kept busy for the entire match.

Western Province were superb and matched the Pumas in every aspect of the game. The more experienced Mpumalanga team were pushed to the limit, and pure guts and tenacity won them the game.

It was not a spectacular try fest, it was a war of attrition.

Western Province scored first when Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu dotted down in the third minute after the chase and collected a chip kick from Jean-Luc du Plessis. He converted his own try.

The Pumas hit back five minutes later. Corné Fourie barged over from close range and Tinus de Beer converted.

Province regained the lead shortly after the restart, when an attempted clearance kick by Devon Williams, close to his own try line, was charged down by Jarrod Taylor, who then collected the ball to score. Mngomezulu converted.

Fourie got his second try of the night on 30 minutes from a rolling maul, but De Beer failed with the conversion.

The ding-dong battle continued with Stefan Coetzee of the Pumas scoring the try of the match in the 33rd minute. Western Province were on attack near the Currie Cup champions’ try line. They lost possession, gifting De Beer the ball. He kicked a grubber towards the right touch line. Coetzee chased, collected and sprinted 70m to score. De Beer added the two points.

A penalty kick by Mngomezulu on the stroke of half-time took the score to 19-17 in the Pumas’ favour.

The second half was a thriller.

The Pumas’ scrum half, Giovan Snyman, was yellow-carded in the 48th minute, and the team was down to 14 players. In the 54th minute, Coetzee got a yellow, and the Pumas were down to 13 players for four minutes.

The Pumas scored in the 64th minute with a three-pointer from the right boot of De Beer.

Province scored a try five minutes later when Luke Burger collected a deft cross-kick from Cornel Smit and dotted down in the left corner. Mngomezulu nailed the conversion.

Western Province held a 24-22 lead with seven minutes remaining.

But the Pumas were not done yet. A 76th minute pressure penalty kick by replacement fly half Thomson, from 52m out, sealed a hard-fought win. Louw Nel was yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle.

The Mbombela Stadium faithful went quite mad as their beloved Pumas had grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat.

The visitors camped in the Pumas’ 22 for much of the second half. Awesome defence and mental strength by the home team were key to their win. They put their bodies on the line and made their fans proud. The two yellow cards should have given Western Province a big advantage, but the Pumas’ in-your-face tackling forced them to make errors.

The Pumas deserved the win.

They remain top of the Currie Cup log.