THE Golden Lions romped into the quarterfinals of the Vodacom Cup with a 51-20 (halftime 27-6) win over Namibia’s Welwitschias in final-round of a North section match played at a deserted Johannesburg Stadium on Friday.
After the weekend’s results, battle lines have been drawn for the Vodacom Cup quarter-finals, and it was not without drama as the players in the Leopards versus Pumas match in Potchefstroom stood around on the field well after the final whistle while the Boland Cavaliers are the South section’s surprise leaders.The Leopards, three log points behind the Pumas and in fifth place on the log, had to win to qualify for the quarters – and did so, 33-29. But the Pumas gained a bonus point to tie the sides on the log.It was initially also thought that the points differential of both sides was 81 and the competition rules were then scrutinised to find the winner.However, in the end it was ascertained that the Leopards had a better points differential of only four points. That was enough to see last year’s semi-finalists get another shot at the title while the Pumas now have a weekend off.The Boland Cavaliers moved from fifth place to top the South section log after a bonus point win of 36-10 over Eastern Province. This sets up a clash with the Leopards this weekend. South’s log leaders before the weekend Western Province lost 20-12 to the Free State in Petrusburg on Saturday and finished only fourth on the South log. They will now play the unbeaten North No 1 side, the Blue Bulls, in Pretoria.The win by Free State, fighting for survival, was contributory to eliminating the Pampas XV from the competition after the Argentinean side had also lost their vital match against the Sharks XV 24-19 in Durban on Friday.The Sharks will be at home to defending champions Griquas who beat the Valke 60-12 to record the most tries and most points in the league phases of the competition.The Lions, who were impressive albeit against a very average Welwitschias, will play Free State in Johannesburg after their win on Friday. At the bottom of the two logs, the Valke were winless in the North section. They conceded 55 tries and scored only 15 tries in their 7 matches (an average of eight against and two tries for per match, with an average score of 17-51). The Welwitschias beat the Valke for their only win in the league.In the South section, the performances of the three core sides for the Southern Kings have gone from bad to worse this season. Eastern Province, South Western Districts and Border, between them won only four matches out of 21 compared to last year’s seven from 18.Three of this year’s four wins were against one another, while EP also beat the Sharks XV.Weekend’s results:Golden Lions 51-20 Welwitschias, Leopards 33-29 Pumas , Sharks XV 24-19 Pampas XV, Valke 12-60 Griquas, Blue Bulls 40-26 Griffons, Free State 20-12 WP, Boland 36-10 EP, SWD 39-30 Border. – Nampa-Sapa
