Maestro De Beer spearheads impressive Pumas rout of WP

The Airlink Pumas condemned DHL Western Province to a tough fight during the second half of the Carling Currie Cup just to make the semifinals with a comprehensive 37-11 win at DHL Stadium in Cape Town on Wednesday afternoon.

The visitors had not won at home this season and were languishing behind WP and ahead of the Sigma Lions at the bottom of the log going into this game.

However, they scored five tries to clinch a full house of log points that takes them to within five points of the fourth placed Tafel Lager Griquas at the halfway point of the league phase of competition.

As it turned out, although it was the scrum and the energy of the Pumas in attacking the breakdown that initially paved the way for the winning team, it was a former Griquas player that stood tall as the architect of most of what went right when it came to the Pumas attacking and tactical game.

Tinus De Beer was wearing the No 10 jersey with Eddie Fouche playing alongside him at inside centre, and the benefits of having two flyhalves in the decision-making axis in the backline were writ large in a game that was close until halftime but the Pumas took complete control of in the second half.

It was the Pumas’ scrumming effort in the first half hour that put the Pumas into forward motion after a stop-start beginning to the season from them.

The first three scrums netted the Pumas penalties, and off the first they created the pressure and secured the possession they needed to cross for a try to right wing Sebastian de Klerk after just three minutes.

WP loose-forward Marcel Theunissen charged down what looked a regulation conversion attempt from Fouche but Fouche was on target a few minutes later with a long range attempt that put the Pumas 8-0 up.

WP struck back almost immediately, and with almost their first proper touch of the ball, as fullback Tristan Leyds set up the attack by running the ball back and his pace on the break was the key to setting up the momentum that saw wing Angelo Davids go over in the corner.

WP flyhalf Kade Wolhuter missed the angled conversion but was on target with a penalty to draw the scores level at 8-all.

It had been all the Pumas up until a few minutes before that, in terms of both territory and possession, so WP would have felt lucky to be level.

It seemed to imbue them with confidence though for they and with the help initially of a string of penalties, they dominated the rest of the half and spent most of it on attack.

KILLER BLOW

The longer the game wore on so the more settled their creaky scrum was looking too.

But sadly for them, much like the Stormers in the third quarter of their Vodacom United Rugby Championship game against Cardiff on Sunday, they made so many handling errors in that period, one of them coming from hooker JJ Kotze after the pack had driven him over the line from an attacking lineout.

Talking of Kotze and lineouts, that was another dysfunction in the WP game that was frustratingly and perhaps disturbingly similar to the Stormers on Sunday - their driving was outstanding when they had the ball, but too often the throw was skew.

WP really should have scored at least one try in the second quarter but a comedy of errors prevented them from doing so. The Pumas were clearly emboldened by still being level on 8-all at the halfway point, and a stern talk from coach Jimmy Stonehouse must have fired them out as they came out seething with energy in the second half.

At the same time the WP discipline, which had been good in the first half, went walkabout, and within just a few minutes of the restart they lost scrumhalf Godlen Masimla to a yellow card after an early tackle.

The Pumas capitalised immediately on their numerical advantage as blindside flank Anele Lungisa powered his way over in the corner from the attacking lineout that resulted from the penalty.

Fouche converted from the touchline and then added a penalty and in no time at all it was suddenly a 10 point lead for the Pumas.

WP appeared to stabilise momentarily and their strong forward driving took them back into the Pumas half from where Wolhuter slotted another penalty to cut the deficit to seven.

The killer blow from the Pumas though came just as Masimla was about to come back onto the field, with the Pumas capitalising on turnover ball secured from the breakdown as WP messed up the restart.

Daniel Maartens did much of the running and it was wing De Klerk who crossed in the right corner for his second try. The conversion pushed the deficit to 14 points and WP looked flustered.

Much as they tried to get back into the game, they were stymied by the penalties they gave away and their error-rate.

Whereas the hosts made heavy weather of finishing anything and lacked a clinical edge, the Pumas scored with almost every opportunity they had, with skipper Willie Engelbrecht running in the fourth try before fullback ran onto a superbly targeted kick from De Beer to dot down the fifth and complete a humiliating afternoon for WP.

Scores

Airlink Pumas 37 - Tries: Sebastian de Klerk 2, Anele Lungisa, Willie Engelbrecht and Tapiwa Mafura; Conversions: Eddie Fouche 3; Penalties: Eddie Fouche 2.

DHL Western Province 11 - Try: Angelo Davids; Penalties: Kade Wolhuter 2.