Griquas remain unbeaten after hard-fought win over Kavaliers

The SA Cup log leaders, Suzuki Griquas, were made to work hard by the Sanlam Boland Kavaliers for their 24-14 victory at the Boland Rugby Stadium in Wellington on Saturday.

Three tries from Gurswin Wehr, Tiaan Lange and Dylan Maart meant the visitors headed into the half-time break with a comfortable 19-7 lead.

Unforced errors and two yellow cards meant the Kavaliers allowed Griquas to maintain their lead on the scoreboard.

The visitors came out firing on all cylinders, scoring three tries in the opening 20 minutes with George Whitehead’s educated boot succeeding two of his three conversion attempts.

Former Kavaliers Maart and Wehr crossed the whitewash, while Lange’s try from close range meant Griquas opened up a healthy lead.

The home side clawed their way back as the first half ended. Doctor Booysen powered across the whitewash to reduce the deficit; his try was converted by replacement flyhalf James Tedder.

Tedder came on in the opening 10 minutes when Juan Mostert took a nasty blow to the shoulder, ruling him out of the match.

The men from Kimberley used their quality set-piece to good effect, drawing first blood in the second half when Connor Mahoney crossed for their bonus point try.

There was a late surge by the home side, which included a try by Tedder, the replacement No 10 converted his own score to reduce the lead to 10 points but the Kavaliers couldn't close the gap any further despite some enterprising and entertaining play.