Paarl — Free State claimed a hard-fought 38-21 victory over the Blue Bulls in their first Craven Week game on Tuesday.A Western Province XV, the Valke, Boland and KwaZulu-Natal also won their opening encounters by big margins on day two at Paarl Boys’ High.Free State selected a 23-man squad loaded with players from the unbeaten Grey College and were deemed to be one of the tournament favourites along with hosts Western Province and the Golden Lions, the unofficial 2017 champions.The Bloemfontein-based team had to dig deep to see off their Pretoria rivals, who owned the first 35-minute half thanks to a rampant pack that dominated the scrums and breakdowns.The Bulls made a fast start to the game and were 10-0 up in as many minutes with a penalty from flyhalf Regard Roets and a try by scrumhalf Bernard van der Linde that Roets converted.Free State were not in it at that stage and were poor in almost every department.It came as a bit of a surprise when they did finally put points on the...
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