Stonehouse revels in ‘greatest moment’ of his coaching career

Pumas coach Jimmy Stonehouse was revelling in his greatest ever moment after his side upset the odds to become 2022 Currie Cup champions.

The Pumas defeated hosts Griquas 26-19 in an entertaining final in front of a full house of supporters at Griqua Park in Kimberley on Saturday.

It was an amazing finish to what had started off as a tough campaign, with the Pumas losing four of their first five games, before powering back to finish fourth in the standings and then picking up two upset wins on the road in the knockouts to claim their first ever Currie Cup title.

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“We didn’t start (the season) too great, but eventually it picked up. The guys started playing well and we especially played well away, and I just love these guy. They’re just amazing,” said Stonehouse.

“I have coached for many years and this is the greatest thing to have ever happened to me. I’ve won the Tbilisi Cup, I’ve won four or five Director’s trophies, but this is just what every coach lives for and I am glad we could achieve that.”

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The match the Pumas outscored the Griquas three tries to one, but it could have been an even bigger scoreline, with the visitors having a number of opportunities which they missed out on in the end.

“Eddie (Fouche) missed those four points and then there were two tries we didn’t get, the forward pass and the held up. So there were a lot of opportunities for us,” Stonehouse said.

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“We had made a decision about five weeks ago that we were going to go for the tries in the rest of our games. We did that against the Griquas. We ran the ball and we got the reward,” he added.

“The Griquas looked like they had the mentality to take whatever points were on offer and they didn’t play their usual game. In the end they tried to do that but it was too late.”

Building something special

Stonehouse is now hoping that the Pumas and Mbombela as a whole can benefit from the success of winning the Currie Cup and that they can bring in more funding and start trying to build something special in Mpumalanga.

“I hope that there are sponsors who are going to come on board and put their hands in their pockets and support us,” he said.

“We are going to try and create a great thing here in Mbombela, especially with the All Blacks Test coming up now. That’s going to be massive.

“We have the Currie Cup here which is a great achievement, so we hope we can take it on from here and build something amazing.”