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Province fight back to win Currie Cup
By Peter Thompson
Huw Jones signed off in style with a double as Western Province blew the Sharks away in the second half to win the Currie Cup with a 33-21 victory in a thriller at Kings Park on Saturday.
The Sharks finished the regular season 10 points clear of Province at the top of the table, but John Dobson's men scored 23 points without reply to win the title for a 34th time and silence the Durban crowd.
Veteran wing Odwa Ndungane put the Sharks in front with an early try in the last game of his career, but Scotland centre Jones went under the posts at the other end in his final appearance for Province before linking up with Glasgow Warriors.
Dan du Preez went over for a second Sharks try between a couple of penalties from Curwin Bosch, who also landed a drop-goal, but Dillyn Leyds went over just before half-time after Province put together phase after phase to reduce the deficit to 21-15.
Province took their game to another level after the break, Cobus Wiese cutting the gap to just a point by crossing after great work from Nizaam Carr and Jones put his side in front for the first time after taking an offload from Seabelo Senatla to score his second try just three minutes later.
Robert du Preez collected the extras and added two penalties, the second resulting in his brother Dan being shown a yellow card, as Province ended their three-year wait for yet another Currie Cup title.
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Latest Comments
Vaai is finally having his breakout year getting comfortable and showing great form at lock, and there are form players and experience all across the backrow, why on earth would you drop him to 6. Ridiculous
Go to commentsSo far, the All Blacks have won 8 matches out of 11 this year. That is a near 73% win rate. AB fans and, I assume, the team itself are not content with that and have everything to play for with the remaining 3 tests this year.
Their historical average is something like 77% these days and, although some years will always be better than others it is not likely to drop that dramatically to 70% any time soon. There is too much historical inertia on the stats. It is like saying Ireland’s form of the last 10 years or so is likely to reverse a historical average of 48% wins soon. It just isn’t.
Moreover, when you say they are ‘doomed’ to a 70% flatline are you not just assuming that Ireland will beat them again? How did that work out for you last time?
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