Tafel Lager Griquas played in their first semi-final since 2019 against favourites Cell C Sharks in Durban. Although nobody will fault their effort it was the Cell Sharks that confirmed their place in the 2021 Carling Currie Cup Final with a deserved 28-24 win.
Apart from the first 5-7 minutes Griquas were more than just competitors and were most of the time in reach of a win on the scoreboard. The Cell C Sharks took "control" of the match during the last 10 minutes of the first half, forcing the Griquas to try and catch up on the scoreboard. Unfortunately, that led to the Griquas making several basic errors in the chase which made the Sharks' work a lot easier. A try with 2 minutes to go made the score much respectable and a truer reflection of the happenings on the field.
03:10 Lionel Cronje converted the first penalty for the Cell C Sharks to take an early lead (03-00).
13:24 George Whitehead converted a penalty to level the scores (03-03).
19:50 George Whitehead converted his second penalty to put Griquas deservedly into the lead (03-06).
20:00 Apart from the initial Sharks' onslaught for the first 5-7 minutes, Griquas dominated play for the rest of the 1st quarter. The score not reflecting the dominance of the Griquas at that stage.
25:40 George Whitehead converted another penalty as the mistakes by the Sharks get punished by Griquas (03-09).
30:20 Kerron v Vuuren goes over for the Cell C Sharks off the back of a lineout-maul (10-09).
36:18 Marius Louw stormed through the halfhearted Griquas backline's defence to score the Sharks second try (17-09).
40:00 The momentum change in the favour of the Sharks during the last 10 minutes of the game. Two unanswered tries in the last 10 minutes gave the Sharks a well deserved 8 points lead.
41:25 George Whitehead slotted his 4th penalty for Griquas (17-12).
43:33 Curwin Bosch converted his second penalty (20-12).
48:04 Adre Smith scored Griquas' 1st try of the match after some great work by Eduan Keyter. Keyter handled the ball three times before Smith dotted down (20-17).
52:50 Kerron v Vuuren scored his second try from the back of yet another lineout-maul (25-17).
60:00 As expected the game slowed a lot down with the Sharks enjoying an 8 points lead. Griquas started to make some basic errors in their efforts to chase the score.
69:09 A yellow card to Marius Louw (Cell C Sharks).
72:23 Curwin Bosch stretched the Sharks lead with a converted penalty (28-17).
78:14 Johan Momsen scored the Griquas 2nd try to narrow the gap to four points with 2 minutes to go (28-24).
Scorers:
Cell C Sharks: Tries: Kerron v Vuuren (2), Marius Louw. Conversions: Curwin Bosch (2). Penalties: Curwin Bosch (3).
Tafel Lager Griquas: Tries: Adre Smith, Johan Momsen. Conversion: George Whitehead. Penalties: George Whitehead (4).
Cell C Sharks: 15. Curwin Bosch, 14. Yaw Penxe, 13. Werner Kok, 12. Marius Louw, 11. Thaakir Abrahams, 10. Lionel Cronje, 9. Sanele Nohamba, 8. Phepsi Buthelezi (c), 7. Henco Venter, 6. Dylan Richardson, 5. Gerbrandt Grobler, 4. Le Roux Roets, 3. Khutha Mchunu, 2. Kerron van Vuuren, 1. Ntuthuko Mchunu. Replacements: 16. Dan Jooste, 17. Khwezi Mona, 18. Lourens Adriaanse, 19. Reniel Hugo, 20. Thembelani Bholi, 21. Cameron Wright, 22. Jeremy Ward, 23. Anthony Volmink.
Tafel Lager Griquas: 15. Ashlon Davids, 14. Daniel Kasende, 13. Chris Hollis, 12. Johnathan Francke, 11. Eduan Keyter, 10. George Whitehead, 9. Stefan Ungerer, 8. Ruan Steenkamp ©, 7. Hanru Sirgel, 6. Gideon van der Merwe, 5. Stefan Willemse, 4. Adre Smith, 3. Erich de Jager, 2. Janco Uys, 1. Mox Mxoli. Replacements: 16. Alandre van Rooyen, 17. Andrew Beerwinkel, 18. Janu Botha, 19. Cameron Lindsay, 20. Johan Momsen, 21. Raegan Oranje, 22. Tinus de Beer, 23. Ederies Arendse, 24. Andrew Kuhn, 25. Mzwanele Zito, 26. Andre Swarts.