Western Province narrowly lost to Griquas in a tough Currie Cup encounter at Kimberley's Absa Park on Saturday. The game brought with it a number of crunching tackles, most of which would have had the boys from Cape Town missing the perfectly manicured green turf of Newlands.
Captain Ross Skeate, ce lebrating his 50th cap, got the warmest welcome of all from warhorse Griquas number 8 Heinrich Stride. Stride cut Skeate down to size not once but twice, as it seemed that whenever Skeate got the ball, the Griquas defence somehow managed to find and smash him backwards. It was quite comical at times, even more so than the big lock's facial hair.
Skeate has reportedly been signed up by Toulon, and if the rumours are true, will be playing his rugby in the French Top 14 soon. He's a hugely talented player so will be a big loss to the Stormers & Western Province.
Unfortunately the camera work on both big hits didn't show them as well as they could have, but the impact was huge on the first and solid on the second, as Skeate describes in his regular column on sarugby.com
"I'm not sure whats hurting moremy body after a tough physical typical Kimberley game, or my pride after losing my 50th game in the way that we didor maybe its the big hits that I took in the beginning of the game, I think my boots are still at the field after being hit out of them."
Griquas won the match with an incredible 62m penalty from Riaan Viljoen.
UPDATE: You can watch the kick here now.
Final Score: 21-20 to Griquas.
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