Currie Cup - Round 6
Cheetahs maul Pumas
ESPNscrum Staff
August 20, 2011
Springbok winger Odwa Ndungane scored two tries for the Sharks against the Leopards © Getty Images
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Teams: South Africa

On Saturday - the Free State Cheetahs were in imperious form against the Pumas running in 11 tries and prevailing 80-16.

No.8 Boom Prinsloo bagged himself a hat-trick in the rout but it was the Pumas who started the better of the two sides scoring a penalty in the opening exchanges. However, Philip Snyman struck back for the hosts with a try and Prinsloo added one of his own moments later. A yellow card for Pumas centre Tiaan Marx was quickly followed by a try from prop WP Nel before the break and while he was off the pitch, the Cheetahs added a further two tries - with Prinsloo running in his second before the first-half hooter.

The Cheetahs ran in a further four tries at the start of the second-half with scrum-half Tewis De Bruyn opening the scoring thanks to good work from Snyman and Nel. Snyman then intercepted a pass and charged down field only to be held up, but he managed to offload to Corne Uys who crashed over. The Cheetahs then stretched their lead through Riaan Smit and Pieter Labuschagne. Despite a consolation effort for flanker Jaco Bouwer, the Cheetahs soon added a couple more tries through Marcel van der Merwe and a hat-trick effort for Prinsloo. Late on in the match Cheetahs fly-half Johan Goosen nailed a drop-goal before Van der Merwe finished the match with his second try and his side's 12th.

On Friday - The Golden Lions suffered their first defeat of the season as they lost 28-26 to Western Province in Newlands.

Western Province dominated the first half but the Lions went into the break leading 17-9. Alwyn Hollenbach and then Lionel Mapoe both scored tries against the run of play for the Lions while fly-halves Demetri Catrakilis and Elton Jantjies exchanged penalties.

After the break Catrakilis and Jantjies added penalties for each side before Johann Sadie exploited some poor Lions defence to score in the corner which Catrakilis converted to put Western Province within a point. Catrakilis and Jantjies both kicked further penalties and then drop-goals to make it 26-25 to the Lions.

And as the clock ran down the Western Province fly-half landed the decisive penalty while Jantjies fluffed his lines. The narrow defeat, though, was enough for the Lions to grab a losing bonus point and stay top of the standings while Western Province move up to third.

Springbok winger Odwa Ndungane scored two second-half tries to secure a scrappy 23-3 win for the Sharks against the Platinum Leopards in Durban.

The Sharks, who began the game in second place in the Currie Cup standings, produced a sloppy first-half display against the struggling Leopards. They struggled to breakdown a Leopards' defence, but two penalties from former France fly-half Freddie Michalak did give them a 6-0 advantage.

After the break Ndungane finished off a flowing move involving backs and forwards, which was converted by Michalak, before the Springbok winger barged over in the right corner for his second. Fly-half Wesley Dunlop scored the Leopards' first and last points of the game with a second-half penalty while replacement Stefan Terblanche completed the scoring for the Sharks with a late try.

The Blue Bulls continued their climb up the Currie Cup table with an emphatic 44-20 victory over Griquas in Pretoria. The hosts - who beat the Pumas 16-12 last week following successive defeats - ran in six tries with Jano Vermaak, Juandré Kruger, Bjorn Basson, Akona Ndungane, Flip van der Merwe and fly-half Louis Fouche all crossing. Fouche also grabbed four conversions and two penalties in a personal haul of 19 points.

The Blue Bulls had already secured the bonus point by the break, with a 32-3 advantage, and threw on their replacements in the second half. That allowed Griquas to score three tries of their own through Sarel Pretorius, Jonathan Mokuena and Lourens Adriaanse.

Fly-half Monty Dumond landed a penalty and a conversion but it was too little too late from the visitors.

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