Western Province’s Under-18s ended their Coca-Cola Craven Week campaign in Johannesburg on a whimper as old rivals Free State handed them a 54-33 beating at St Stithians College in the penultimate match of the week-long tournament.
The Bloemfontein team ended unbeaten with three wins on the bounce, while Province, the unofficial champions for the past two years, had to settle for a solitary win from their three outings, beating the Pumas of Mpumalanga.
The 13-13 draw with the Golden Lions ended the Western Cape side’s hopes of contesting the final game against a KwaZulu-Natal outfit who bagged two big-points wins on the bounce to qualify for the “final” against hosts the Lions.
The Lions, on the back of one win from two games, somehow were given the green light for the final ahead of Free State, a decision that will not go down well with the latter, especially after doing what they did to WP.
Wings Henk Cilliers and Wycliff Vlitoor both dotted down twice as Free State ran in seven tries to the five of WP.
WP left wing Angelo Davids scored a brace of tries and one each for captain and scrumhalf Vusile Dlepu, incumbent SA Schools player Muller du Plessis (fullback) and Duren Hoffman (all crossed the whitewash, with flyhalf Quan-Franklin Eymann successful with four conversions.
This is the first time since 2014 that WP under head coach Elmo Wolfaaardt have tasted defeat.
“We were aiming to sign off with an unbeaten run, but it never materialised,” said Wolfaardt.
“We were in it to win it against Free State but had to settle for second after being outplayed in the final quarter.
“But credit to my 23-man squad for the way they played and conducted themselves. The Lions clash was a game and a half and we could have won it had we duplicated our first-half effort.”
* The Golden Lions are the unofficial champions of the Craven Week after defeating KZN 45-18 in a thrilling final fixture of the festival.
The Sharks were the dominant side in the early phases. They led 18-11 at half time and looked to have matters well in hand, but they were unable to add to that score in the second half as the Lions forwards took control and their pacey backs ran the big KZN forwards off their feet.
The Lions wingers, Tino Swanepoel and David Cary were outstanding. They were excellent on the counter-attack and got a try each. Cary also pulled off two try-saving tackles.
Fullback Kennedy Mpeku contributed 20 points via four penalties and four conversions to seal what was a great week for him.