No away day blues for Valke, Griffons and EP

It was a weekend to savour for the away teams in the Carling Currie Cup First Division, as the Valke, NovaVit Griffons and Eastern Province kept their grip on the top half of the standings, with the semi-finals fast moving into view.

The East Randers had too much firepower for the Border Bulldogs in East London and won by 33-15; the Northern Free Staters outlasted the Phangela SWD Eagles by 40-31 in George; and the Elephants beat the Leopards by 34-21 in Potchefstroom.

The Valke scored five tries, four of which were converted by Sergio Stalmeester, in windy conditions at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium to keep their winning run intact against the Bulldogs on Friday evening.

The visitors, who scored three converted tries in the first 15 minutes to set the tone, operated from a good platform laid by their pack of forwards, while they also defended very well, especially at the end when they had two players in the sin-bin.

At the same time, 630km to the west at Outeniqua Park, the Griffons started their clash against the Eagles like a house on fire. The visitors scored five tries without reply to lead by 33-0 at the break, with Willem van den Hever (hooker) crossing twice to push his season tally up to seven five-pointers.

Credit to the Eagles though, they came back very well in the second half and crossed the visitors' tryline five times to “win” the second stanza by 31-7.

However, a try by Griffons fullback Andrew Kota – who also added five conversions for a personal tally of 15 points – on the hour mark probably sealed the deal for them, although three yellow cards in this period didn't help their cause.

Four first-half tries set the tone for Eastern Province's 34-21 victory over the Leopards at Olen Park on Saturday afternoon, with the visitors controlling the encounter from the outset.

Rodney Damons and Deon Plaatjies scored two tries apiece for the Elephants, who will take a lot of confidence from this victory with only two rounds to go before the semi-finals.

The Valke still lead the race to the play-offs with a perfect 15 points from three games, with the Griffons and EP next in line, both on 11 points. SWD (8) and the Leopards (6) are still very much in the frame to reach the semi-finals, and so are the Bulldogs (2), although their chances seem to be slipping away.

Scores

Border Bulldogs 15 (5) Valke 33 (21)

Border – Tries: Mangaliso Zixesha, Larry Nkonki. Conversion: Maxwell Klaasen. Penalty: Klaasen.

Valke – Tries: Andrew Volschenk, Kelvin Kanenungo, Zander van der Merwe, Zingisa April, Valentino Wellman. Conversions: Sergio Stalmeester (4).

Phangela SWD Eagles 31 (0) NovaVit Griffons 40 (33)

SWD – Tries: Damon Royle, Clive Kruger, Rosco Syster (2), Marlo Weich. Conversions: Syster (3).

Griffons – Tries: Willem van den Hever (2), Kyle Cyster, Quan Eymann, Chris Hollis, Andrew Kota. Conversions: Kota (5).

Leopards 21 (11) Eastern Province 34 (24)

Leopards – Tries: Ig Prinsloo, Ghudian van Reenen, Andre Grobler. Penalties: Shaun-Christian Baxter, Brandon Keevy.

EP – Tries: Rodney Damons (2), Davian Swanepoel, Deon Plaatjies (2), Jayden Bantom. Conversions: Oliver Zono (2).