{"id":16959,"date":"2023-07-03T16:04:55","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T14:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rugby.supersportschools.com\/?p=16959"},"modified":"2023-07-03T16:04:55","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T14:04:55","slug":"eastern-province-shock-free-state-to-their-fifth-successive-craven-week-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=16959","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Province shock Free State to their fifth successive Craven Week defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PHOTO: Frans Lombard\/Actionpix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GEORGE. – The Free State suffered their record fifth successive defeat at the annual Craven Week when Eastern Province shocked them by 26-23 during the opening day of this year’s tournament at Outeniqua Park.<\/p>\n

Eastern Province produced a superb performance in the second half to secure the victory after trailing by 6-16 at the break.<\/p>\n

The initial spark was provided by winger Jamiane\u00a0Dampies<\/strong>\u00a0from the kick-off as he ran more than 60 metres past the Free State’s defence to score an exceptional try.<\/p>\n

It was however the performances of their two loose-forwards De Wet Fourie<\/strong> (eighthman) and\u00a0Ballo Hlekani<\/strong> (flanker) which kept the fire burning throughout. Fourie was named Man of the Match<\/strong> for his efforts. The duo managed to keep the dangerous JJ Theron<\/strong> (eighthman) at bay during the match.<\/p>\n

Theron had to put more effort into the breakdown than usual which restricted the amount of opportunities he had to set-off on his dangerous runs.<\/p>\n

Eastern Province’s flyhalf, Dominic Malgas<\/strong>, also played a major role to help secure the victory by keeping the scoreboard ticking over with his boot. He converted both his side’s tries and slotted four penalties. He also asked a couple of difficult questions to the Free Stater’s defence.<\/p>\n

The side from Bloemfontein’s best player on the day was Marno Stopforth<\/strong> (flanker).<\/p>\n

Free State last victory at the Craven Week was in 2019 in Bloemfontein when they managed to beat Boland on the second day of the tournament by 45-26. The streak of five losses is the most the Free Staters suffered since the inaugural tournament of 1964.<\/p>\n

The Free Stater’s last victory over Eastern Province at the tournament was back in 2013 in Polokwane.<\/p>\n

Boland kicked-off their 2023-campaign with a 26-19 victory over the Valke in the first match of the 58th edition of the Craven Week. The victorious side’s flanker Matt Ramoa<\/strong> made sure that the SA Schools selectors don’t forget about him with a memorable performance that saw him being named Man of the Match.<\/p>\n

Boland’s halfback pairing of Callum van Staden<\/strong> and Luan Giliomee<\/strong> also could feel more than happy with their performances on the day.<\/p>\n

For the Valke their wing Oregopotse Shilubane looked dangerous when he received possession.<\/p>\n

Scorers:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eastern Province 26 (6) –<\/strong> Tries: Jamiane Dampies, Hein Terblanche. Conversions: Dominic Malgas (2). Penalties: Malgas (4). Free State 23 (16) –<\/strong> Try: Marno Stopforth, Jean Erasmus. Conversions: Ian van der Merwe (2). Penalties: Van der Merwe (3).<\/p>\n

Boland 26 (19) \u2013<\/strong> Tries: Callum van Staden, Brendon September, Rickey Lesch, Petri van Dyk, Conversions: Luan Giliomee (3). Valke 19 (7) \u2013<\/strong> Tries: v Zaide Leigh Dippenaar, Oregopotse Shilubane, Lynghe Pretorius, Conversions: Duan du Toit (2). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GEORGE. – The Free State suffered their record fifth successive defeat at the annual Craven Week when Eastern Province shocked them by 26-23 during the opening day of this year’s tournament at Outeniqua Park. Eastern Province produced a superb performance in the second half to secure the victory after trailing by 6-16 at the break. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}