Two late tries earned Vodacom Western Province a 26-17 come-from-behind Absa Currie Cup victory over archrivals the Vodacom Blue Bulls at Newlands in Cape Town, on Saturday evening.Despite trailing in possession stakes for most of the first 40 minutes, first-half tries from JP Joubert and Pedrie Wannenburg – with flyhalf Morné Steyn converting – helped the Vodacom Bulls into a commanding 14-3 at half-time lead.

That lead then became 17-9 in the second half, before replacement Bulls loose forward Hilton Lobberts was sin-binned in the 68th minute – setting up a heart-stopping finish as Vodacom WP launched a stunning fightback in the final 10 mintues.

Flyhalf Willem de Waal – who scored 20 points on his WP debut last week – had kept his side within striking distance with his metronomic boot for most of the match, but late tries by fullback Gio Aplon and inside centre Gcobani Bobo, with De Waal adding the extras, handed the home side a famous victory, much to the delight of the partisan Newlands crowd.

It was Vodacom WP’s first win of the season, after going down narrowly to the Sharks last Friday night, and it moved the Capetonians into fourth place on the Absa Currie Cup log, with the Bulls in sixth place.

In other action this weekend, the Sharks survived an early scare from visitors, the Boland Cavaliers, eventually winning 38-13 at the Absa Stadium on Friday evening.

Boland took an early lead thanks to a fine try from inside centre Lionel Cornelius, but the home side clawed their way back to go into half-time at 11-10 up.

But second-half yellow cards ultimately cost Boland – they lost two men to the sin bin at the same time – as the Sharks scored 21 points in the last 15 minutes, taking the score from 17-13 to the 25-point winning margin.

More importantly, however, the Sharks also grabbed a bonus point when wing Henno Mentz crashed over for their fourth try, the Durbanites moving into first place on the Absa Currie Cup log in the process.

Elsewhere on Saturday, the Vodacom Cheetahs beat the Xerox Lions in a repeat of last year’s Absa Currie Cup Final, flyhalf Chris Rossouw scoring all his team’s points as they won 22-18 in Bloemfontein.

Rossouw scored a try and slotted one conversion and five penalties, trumping Xerox Lions fullback Earl Rose, who kicked six penalty goals for his team.

The Valke, meanwhile, recorded their first win in the Absa Currie Cup in over a year by beating the Wildeklawer Griquas 36-30 in Brakpan – also on Saturday.

Neither of the teams managed a four-try bonus point, but kickers Jacques Schutte (Valke) and Conrad Barnard (Griquas) accounted for 21 and 15 points, respectively.

The leading Absa Currie Cup scorers:

Top points-scorers:

Willem de Waal (Vodacom WP) 36
Rory Kockott (Sharks) 29
Chris Rossouw (Vodacom FS Cheetahs) 28
Justin Peach (Boland) 23
Riaan Smit (Valke) 22

Top try-scorers:

John Mametsa (Vodacom Blue Bulls) 3
John Daniels (Boland) 3
Luvo Sogidashe (Valke) 2

Source: sarugby.com