Life in the Currie Cup Premier Division has been tough for the Platinum Leopards and Friday night was no exception as they went down 48-7 to a rampant Western Province side, for who captain Luke Watson scored a hat-trick of tries.

Province did, however, make a rather sluggish start to the game and may well have found themselves behind if Leopards fly-half Clayton Durand had not missed with a relatively straight forward penalty early on in the game.

Throughout the first half, the up-country side made sure they got in the faces of their opponents, using rush defensive tactics to smother the dangerous Western Province backs, who struggled to find their rhythm under the pressure.

The home side's first decent move of the game came in the 12th minute when Joe Pietersen broke down the left wing. Pietersen fed Gio Aplon, who in turn offloaded to scrumhalf Conrad Hoffmann, who was stopped a metre from the line.

The Cape Town side kept the pressure on, spending most of their time in the Leopards half and they finally got points on the board in the 15th minute when Willem De Waal slotted home a simple penalty from right in front of the posts.

Five minutes later Province were awarded another kickable penalty, but this time De Waal opted for the line-out option, from which the a rolling forward maul produced the first try of the game; Luke Watson emerging from the bottom of the pile as the points scorer. De Waal missed with the conversion, leaving the Cape Town side 8-0 ahead after 22 minutes.

The flow of the game following the try saw Leopards trying to launch a few attacks, but they made very little inroads against a solid Province side.

The home side continued to struggle to get their attacks going, although Aplon did go on a typically scintillating run in the 33rd minute, gliding through a host of Leopards players. But instead of finding one of two free men on his outside, he tried to go all the way and was stopped 15 metres out.

The cracks, however, were now starting to show in the Leopards defence and De Waal took full advantage of some slack marking as he sliced straight through the middle of the field from 35-yards out to dive under the posts for Province's second try. The conversion was a given, 15-0 at half time to Western Province.

Five minutes after the restart the hosts added their third try, courtesy of a 70 metre move which culminated in hooker Tiaan Liebenberg charging down the right wing and chipping the ball ahead. Together with Tonderai Chavhanga and Pietersen, Liebenberg gave chase and when the ball was spilled by the lone Leopards defender, Pietersen dove over the line for the score.

De Waal?s conversion from about seven metres in from the right hand touchline struck the right hand post and bounced back into play.

Province were now hunting down the bonus point and it came 10 minutes into the second half as another storming maul from the forwards allowed Watson to dot down for his second try. De Waal made no mistake with the two-pointer, leaving the score at 27-0 after 51 minutes.

Alistair Coetzee?s side remained permanently camped out in the Platinum Leopards half, and after a period of relentless pressure, substitute flanker Pieter Louw picked the ball up five metres from the line and burst through a couple of tackles to dive over for the fifth try in the 62nd minute. De Waal?s simple conversion made it 34-0.

There was finally some consolation for the Potchefstroom team 12 minutes from time when a poor kick by WP substitute Morgan Newman allowed them to quickly move the ball through the backs out to the left wing, where outside centre Deon van Rensburg dived over in the corner. Durand put over a good kick to add the extra two points.

But Western Province continued to exert their superior physical dominance amongst the forwards and in the 74th minute yet another powerful rolling maul resulted in Watson getting his third try of the game. De Waal landed an excellent conversion from right next to the left hand touchline.

There was time for yet another score ? in the dying seconds of the match substitute Bolla Conradie nipped round the blindside and timed his pass to perfection to give Aplon a relatively easy run in. De Waal added the conversion as the siren sounded to leave the final score at 48-7.

The scorers:

For Western Province:
Tries: Aplon, De Waal, Louw, Pietersen, Watson 3
Cons: De Waal 5
Pen: De Waal

For the Leopards:
Try: Van Rensburg
Con: Durand

Teams:

Western Province: 15 Joe Pietersen, 14 Tonderai Chavhanga, 13 Juan De Jongh, 12 Peter Grant, 11 Gio Aplon, 10 Willem De Waal, 9 Conrad Hoffmann, 8 Luke Watson (captain), 7 Duane Vermeulen, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Anton Van Zyl, 4 Hilton Lobberts, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Tiaan Liebenberg, 1 JD Moller,
Replacements: 16 Deon Fourie, 17 Wicus Blaauw, 18 Chris Jack, 19 Pieter Louw, 20 Bolla Conradie, 21 Morgan Newman, 22 Frikkie Welsh

Leopards: 15 Jean Tiedt, 14 Jovan Bowles, 13 Deon van Rensburg, 12 Berndt Theissinger, 11 Jan van Zyl, 10 Clayton Durand, 9 Michael Bondesio, 8 RW Kember, 7 Wilhelm Koch (captain), 6 Bennie Adams, 5 Anthonie Gronum, 4 Rynard Landman, 3 Philip Lemmer, 2 Gavin Williamson, 1 Nardus Lombard.
Replacements: 16 Pellow van der Westhuizen, 17 Os van der Walt, 18 Rudi
Mathee, 19 Thabo Mamojele, 20 Theo van Wyk, 21 Basil de Doncker, 22 Bom Samaai.

Referee: Sindile Mayende
Assistant referees: Phillip Bosch, Mtheleni Msileni