The Leopards took the first step to ensure a changing of the guard in South Africa's premier domestic competition, the Currie Cup.

The men from Potchefstroom and their rivals from Wellington, the Boland Cavaliers, took the honours in the first leg of the Absa Currie Cup promotion/relegation matches on Friday.

In Brakpan the Leopards enhanced their chances of playing in the Premier Division of the Currie Cup next year when they stunned the Valke 29-24 (half-time 10-6) at Bosman Stadium on Friday evening.

This win came despite the Leopards having lost to the Griffons in the Absa Currie Cup First Division Final the week before and they beat a side that had earlier in the season stunned the mighty Western Province.

Valke coach Rudy Joubert will be furious that his charges squandered their home advantage in the first round of the promotion/relegation battle. The Leopards took four log points from the match and the Valke one - the team with the most log points will play in the Currie Cup Premier Division next season.

The first half was an evenly contested affair with the visitors enjoying a slight advantage of the territory and possession, but it was the hosts who drew first blood.

The Valke stole a Leopards' line-out to start a move that saw captain and flyhalf Hanno Coetzee slicing through a gap in the defence to dive over next to the uprights.

Leopards flyhalf Clayton Durand kept his team in the hunt with the boot and in fact, his fourth penalty in the 50th minute nudged the visitors into the lead (12-10) for the first time in the game

Five minutes later flanker Jaco Bouwer latched onto a wild pass and raced 25 metres to score the Leopards' first try as the men form the North West gained the ascendancy to leave the score at 19-10.

Durand added three more with a prodigious 55-metre penalty and the writing was on the wall for the East Randers. The Leopards continued to dominate the possession stakes as well as the breakdown points where they pilfered ball at will.

Winger Poerie van Rooyen then pulled one back for the hosts when he crashed over under the crossbar as the Valke fought back in desperation.

With five points separating the teams the last 15 minutes ignited into a helter-skelter trading of blows as both teams threw everything they had into the exchanges.

The Leopards put in a colossal defensive effort and that was probably the difference in the final analysis.

Speedy fullback Jan van Zyl put the final nail in the coffin when he finished off a counter attack. A Valke defender tried to clear the ball off his line but the ball screwed off his boot and landed in the hands of Leopards replacement scrumhalf Michael Bondesio who sent the ball wide for van Wyk to dive over in the corner.

Knowing that the final verdict, as to who plays top flight rugby next year, will be determined by the aggregate score, the Valke fought till the very end and were rewarded with a try by burly prop Dewald Coetzee - who scored from a quickly taken penalty after the hooter had gone.

The return fixture will be played next Friday, October 24, in Potchefstroom, where the Leopards will enjoy home advantage in their quest to consolidate their first round victory and progress to the Premier Division.

In Wellington flyhalf Elgar Watts was the star performer as the Boland Cavaliers made a big statement about their determination to retain their Premier Division status with an emphatic 54-15 Currie Cup promotion-relegation victory over the Griffons in Wellington on Friday.

The young Boland pivot scored four first-half tries as the Cavaliers raced into an unassailable 42-3 half-time lead.

While the Cavaliers eased off considerably in the second half and managed to add just two more tries to their six first-half scores, the Cavaliers have virtually secured their place in the Premier Division for another year.

The second leg may be in Welkom next Friday, but the Griffons have several mountains to climb if they are to get promotion. They will have to beat the Cavaliers by a margin of at least 40 points and deny them a bonus-point.

Boland dominated the first-half proceedings, cornering the Griffons in their half of the field, and exploited the visitors' shaky drift defence out wide as Cavaliers captain Piet van Zyl repeatedly latched onto long skip passes from Watts to break the line.

The Cavaliers also benefited from a far superior scrum, and the Griffons front row spent the afternoon doing their best to absorb the considerable pressure applied on them by the likes of Boland loosehead prop Janro van Niekerk.

Boland wingers Danwel Demas and Deon Scholtz, along with centres Piet van Zyl and Lionel Cornelius added to the four-try haul from Watts, while fullback Justin Peach kicked six conversions and Watts converted the last try.

Griffons loosehead prop Sarel Louw and outside centre Jacko Jackson scored the visitors' only tries, while Blom added a conversion and a penalty.

Seven minutes into play Watts intercepted a pass from an elaborate Griffons move off a scrum near halfway, and the flyhalf surged upfield, shrugging fullback Cecil Afrika aside to score.

Blom reduced the deficit by three points eight minutes later, but when Watts scythed through a gap out wide from a line-out just inside the Griffons half, the Cavaliers had established a 14-3 lead inside the first quarter.

A well-weighted chip-kick into the Griffons 22 was bobbled by Afrika and went unclaimed by his team-mate Daryl Coeries, and Demas was on hand to scoop the ball up and dive over for the try with 14 minutes remaining in the half.

The home team scored three tries more before the break.

Watts finished off a Boland counter-attack from a Jandre Blom chip near halfway, securing the Cavaliers' four-try bonus point, before adding his fourth try from yet another incisive, wide attack. And Van Zyl streaked through a gaping hole in the midfield from a cheeky backline move off a scrum inside the Griffons 22 at the end of the half to give the home team a commanding 39-point cushion at half-time.

A plucky Griffons outfit scored five minutes after the break as lock Ockie van Zyl claimed a throw-in on the Boland 22, popped the ball to his captain at the front of the line-out, and Sarel Louw thundered over for his team's first try.

With 14 minutes remaining Boland won a line-out inside the Griffons 22, spun the ball to Watts, and the flyhalf found a speeding Deon Scholtz on the wing with a floating skip pass for the home team's seventh try.

Referee Jonathan Kaplan reduced the Cavaliers to 14 men when he yellow-carded Angelo Brinkhuys five minutes later, penalising Boland's veteran flanker for repeated infringements at the breakdown.

The home team suffered another blow when lock Bradley Mockford was stretchered from the field with a neck injury, and the Griffons quickly swooped on the opportunity to score from a scrum inside the Boland 22, as Jackson squirmed through Van Zyl's attempted tackle to dive over the line with five minutes remaining.

Replacement centre Lionel Cornelius made sure the home team had the last say when dummied his way through the Griffons' line, exchanged passes with Scholtz in close support to beat the last defender, and was tackled over the line in the final minute.

Play-off 1:

Boland: 54
Tries: Elgar Watts (4), Danwel Demas, Piet van Zyl, Deon Scholtz, Lionel Cornelius
Cons: Justin Peach (6), Elgar Watts

Griffons: 15
Tries: Sarel Louw, Jacko Jackson
Cons: Jandre Blom Pen: Blom

Play-off 2:

Valke: 24 Tries: Hanno Coetzee, Poerie van Rooyen, Dewald Coetzee
Cons: Jeffrey Perkins, Van Rooyen (2)
Pen: Perkins

Leopards: 29
Tries: Jaco Bouwer, Jan van Zyl
Cons: Clinton Durand (2)
Pens: Durand (5)