Cavas blow away toothless Leopards in Wellington

Sanlam Boland Cavaliers’ hopes of qualifying for the Currie Cup Premier Division were given a massive boost when they beat the Leopards convincingly, 80-0, in Saturday’s SA Cup clash at Boland Stadium in Wellington after leading 33-0 at halftime.

The win sees head coach Hawies Fourie’s Cavas’ team consolidate their fourth position on the log with two regular round games left before the semifinals.

The hosts opened the scoring in the fifth minute after inside centre, Jurick Lewis, burst through two would-be Leopards defenders to dot down close to the poles for flyhalf Ashlon Davids to convert for a 7-0 lead.

Boland played the game intensely on attack and defence, which had the Leopards chasing shadows at times.

The home side threatened to break the game open, with winger Xavier Mitchell crossing for the home side's second converted five-pointer after 12 minutes.

With Boland applying a vice-grip-like pressure on both sides of the ball, the Leopards' error count started to increase as lock Uzile Tele got himself sent to the sin-bin for 10 minutes for a cynical foul as the Cavas set up another dangerous maul from an attacking lineout.

Unfortunately, Boland could not convert the one-man advantage into more points inside the first 20 minutes as individual errors led to a breakdown in a few promising attacking opportunities.

However, the Cavas extended their lead as flyhalf Ashlon Davids put Mitchell away for his second try of the day with a neatly-placed cross kick for the winger to scoop up and place over the line in the left-hand corner.

And from the kick off, Boland opened up the Leopards’ defence as they took full advantage of a turnover for Kwezi Mafu to run in untouched under the poles and put the Cavas up 26-0 as they hit the half-hour mark of the game.

Mitchell then completed a fantastic first-half hat-trick as he came in from his wing to cut open the Leopards' defence after another attacking foray, with Davids converting his fourth try of the day to put Boland up 33-0 with five minutes of the first half still left to play.

The Leopards tried desperately to hit back in the final five minutes of the first half, but were held out by some disciplined Cavas defence as the home side ensured they kept the visitors scoreless before the halftime break.

TURNED ON THE STYLE

As the second half started with Boland trying to maintain their dominance, the home side suffered a setback with Davids getting injured in a crunching tackle as the flyhalf had to be stretchered off the park.

However, the Cavas would not let Davids’s departure deter them from increasing their lead with hooker Sidney Tobias diving over from a lineout maul.

The Bolanders then turned on the style for their seventh five-pointer as replacement hooker, HP van Schoor, threw a back of the hand pass for replacement fullback Dominic Smit to run in untouched.

And straight from the kick off, leading Cavas SA Cup try scorer Lunathi Nxele got his name on the scoresheet after a breakaway run by Boland captain and No 8, Thurlow Marsh, with Tedder converting for a 52-0 lead.

Van Schoor then showed he does not just possess silky skills for a front-rower. He showed his power game after breaking away from a maul and bumping over the Leopards winger defender to score in the right-hand corner.

Godlen Masimla got in on the action when Boland found open space from the kick off with the replacement scrumhalf dotting down for the home side’s 10th try.

Tedder then scored and converted try number eleven as Boland started throwing caution to the wind to go 73-0 up before Masimla brought up 80 points with his second try of the game as Tedder converted.

There were two late injuries with no replacements left, and a yellow card cut Boland down to just 12 players on the pitch, but the visitors could not break down the home side’s defence as the Cavas kept them scoreless for the full 80 minutes.

SCORERS:

SANLAM BOLAND CAVALIERS 80 (33) – Tries: Xavier Mitchell (3), Jurick Lewis, Kwezi Mafu, Sidney Tobias, Dominic Smit, HP van Schoor, Godlen Masimla (2), Lunathi Nxele, and James Tedder. Conversions: Ashlon Davids (4) and James Tedder (6)

LEOPARDS 0 (0)