When the Tafel Lager Griquas woke up on the morning of their third successive SuperSport Rugby Challenge final, the mist that that blanketed the naval town of Saldanha Bay would have made it difficult for a team which had lost their two previous deciders to feel great about their prospects they couldn't even see.
But a bit like the wintry sun eventually forced its way from behind the thick mist, Griquas borrowed from that grim determination as they turned an unhappy recent history in the competition by beating the hitherto unbeaten Pumas 28-13 to win their first Rugby Challenge title at the third time of asking.
The comprehensive win not only ended a wretched run in which they’d lost their first two finals, it also had the symmetry of them beating a team which had snatched last year’s trophy via a last minute drop-goal and had comfortably bested them 37-28 in the round-robin stages.
Somewhat fittingly for a team which lodged at a casino (Mykonos Casino in Langebaan) on the eve of the final, Brent Janse van Rensburg’s team played with the nous of a team which, to paraphrase Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler, “knew when to hold ‘em...”
Having gone into the final with a coach (Janse van Rensburg) and a player (loose-head prop Khwezi Mona) who were in the victorious Pumas structures last year, there was a sense of knowing about the way Griquas went about constructing their final win.
Griquas had resolved to do well at two things in particular: score in the first quarter while preventing the Pumas from doing the same; and putting the skids on the Nelspruit-based team’s juggernaut of a rolling maul.
The reason for the former was because they’d studied that the Pumas score most of their tries in the first quarter and had conceded just two from that time in 50 round-robin tries, and had scored a whopping 59% of their tries from the lineout drive.
With their preference for using their heavy packs and the educated boots of their flyhalves to play in the right areas, the two teams were destined to cancel each other somewhat.
And so it was that their styles of play made it a tight first quarter in which Griquas used their chances best by scoring through fullback Anthony Volmink and kicking their goals via flyhalf and captain George Whitehead, while their opponents through handling errors by centre Neil Maritz and winger Morne Joubert.
With man of the match Mona getting the better of Marne Coetzee, his old sparring mate at Pumas, and Jimmy Stonehouse’s men frequently falling foul of referee Ben Crouse’s whistle, the scrum and discipline was the area where Griquas found ascendancy in the game.
Whitehead had brought his kicking boots, scoring 13 of Griquas’ points via three penalties and two conversions, while his counterpart struggled with to keep his record off the kicking tee spotless, failing to convert both of Devon Williams’ tries.
When Williams’ scored his second try, the eight point margin between the two sides would have taken Griquas minds back to last year’s final, when they had eight points to defend in the final four minutes but failed to.
But an overturned, and kickable, penalty in the 72nd minute meant the lead never narrowed to less than eight points, the symmetry for how differently things would work out being their scoring their own try in what had been a fateful 76th minute last year.
The result meant the Pumas lost their first game of the competition in their ninth game, having amassed a 19-game winning streak from last year’s unbeaten run.
The coincidental presence of former Springbok, Boland and Bulls winger McNeil Hendricks – who was last spotted playing Chester Williams in the movie Invictus – somehow combined to give Griquas’ redemption story a fitting against-the-odds theme.
Scorers:
Pumas - Tries: Devon Williams (2), Penalty: Chris Smith
Griquas - Tries: Anthony Volmink, AJ le Roux, Eduan Keyter, Conversions: George Whitehead (2), Penalties: George Whitehead (3)