The SWD Eagles held off a strong second-half fightback by the Griffons to seal a 20-13 (17-0) victory in their Absa Currie Cup First Division clash at Outeniqua Park in George on Friday night.

The hosts scored all their opening period points inside 18 minutes thanks to tries from Alshaun Bock and Grant Kemp.

A one-sided encounter was well on the cards at that stage, but the match took a dramatic twist after the restart when the Eagles were reduced to 13 men -- paving the way for a strong comeback via scores from Hansie Graaff and Nicky Steyn.

However, the Griffons fell just short and in the process missed the chance to make up ground on the log-leading Eastern Province Kings, who dropped points in the only other match of the evening which ended in a 30-30 tie against the Ford Pumas.

The Eagles on the other hand stayed in fifth place, but their performance was far from convincing in front of their home fans.

They made a flying start to the match and were ahead just four minutes in when winger Bock crossed for the opening try, which was converted by Elric van Vuuren.

Fullback Van Vuuren added a penalty moments later, before the lead was stretched to 17-0 shortly before the first quarter mark when prop Kemp bulldozed his way over for another converted score.

But the Eagles then seemed to go to sleep and failed to add to their tally again before the break

The visitors came out firing after the restart and were rewarded in the 55th minute after replacement forward Sithole crossed the whitewash for their first points with Robert van Schalkwyk missing the conversion.

Just past the hour mark, the home side had two players yellow carded when Michael Vermaak and Mzoxolo Dyantyi were sent to the bin either side of Sithole also being penalised with a 10-minute sit-out by referee Lusanda Jam.

With 12 minutes to go, number eight Steyn set up a tense finish with a superb breakaway try for his side after he exchanged passes with several of his backline teammates to run in from 60 metres.

Crucially, though, Van Schalkwyk missed the conversion, before replacement fullback Tiaan van Wyk scored a penalty to cut the gap to four.

But all hopes of a comeback were then ended when Van Vuuren landed a second penalty four minutes from time to seal the win.

SCORERS:

SWD Eagles – Tries: Jeffrey Taljard, Grant Kemp. Conversions: Elric van Vuuren (2). Penalties: Van Vuuren, Theuns Kotze.

Griffons – Tries: Martin Sithole, Nicky Steyn. Penalty: Tiaan van Wyk.