Cape Town — If you can't beat a team, never mind scoring points against them, while they are playing with 13 players, then you do not deserve to win the rugby match.
The Pumas defended for all they were worth and showed their championship credentials when they kept Western Province at bay for 20 minutes while they had two players in the sin bin and for a time when the yellow cards overlapped.
The Mbombela side won the Currie Cup match 25-24 even though they played way below their potential.
A panicky Province side tried to throw the ball around any chance they got while the home side was two men down and that led to several errors right in front of the Pumas' try line.
Full credit must go to the defending champions for how they managed to keep the Province players at bay.
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, WP fullback who contributed 14 points, was the culprit a couple of times trying to force a way through with passes that weren't on when they only had to keep cool heads.
Two Pumas backline players were sent off for cynical play, so the space was at the back. But the WP players failed in their attempts to use that space.
The match started at a speedy pace as the Pumas looked to maintain their dominance in the domestic competition. They already hold the top spot after the Cheetahs lost earlier on Friday against the Sharks.
WP showed early on, though, that they did not travel to Mbombela just to compete but to take the game to the home side. And they did.
After 15 minutes of play, the visitors led 14-7 before the Pumas woke up and managed to score two more tries to take a 19-14 lead into the break. Province struggled to halt the rolling maul of the Pumas and that led to them losing the lead at halftime.
Their maul defence has been a concern for the WP coaches and it showed again that they still have some work to do to sharpen up in that department.
While it was a proper arm wrestle in the second half, the two teams showed grit on defence to keep each other out.
It took a while for the first points to come after the break as kicking for territory was the order of the day. Even when the Pumas were down to 13 men, they showed why they are defending champions with some excellent defence.
Province on the other hand can only blame themselves for not scoring in the period where they had the numerical advantage. It is something they will have to sharpen up on.
They had a lot of opportunities to put the Pumas to bed but failed to take any.
A late converted try by replacement winger Luke Burger put the visitors in the lead with only minutes left in the game. But as he has done before as the Pumas' replacement flyhalf, kicker Brandon Thomson, slotted a late penalty to seal the game for his team.
Points-scorers:
Pumas 25 — Tries: Corne Fourie (2), Cameron Dawson. Conversions: Tinus de Beer (2). Penalties: De Beer, Brandon Thomson.
Western Province 24 — Tries: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Jarrod Taylor, Luke Burger. Conversions: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (3). Penalty: Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
IOL Sport