The visitors crossed the whitewash on 8 occasions with the winger Edwill van der Merwe going over for a hat-trick.

Chris Smith, Stephan Streicher, Duncan Saal, Johan van Niekerk and Craig Barry all dotted down as well.

For the hosts Armandt Pretorius and the captain Stephan Janse van Rensburg crossed the whitewash.

The Maties coach, Hawies Fourie, told OFM Sport that their game plan was to apply as much pressure as possible.

“We prepared well for Shimlas because they are a very good team and they were on a high after their win against Pukke.

“I knew that if we could apply enough pressure on them it would be difficult for them to play that well again, so we wanted to apply as much pressure as we could.

“I also think losing their two flyhalves against the Pukke definitely affected their backline.

“In the first half we scored a few tries, but they were still in it. In the second half they sort of faded away.”

The former Toyota Cheetahs assistant and Griquas head coach added that it’s a two-horse race between them and Tuks to finish at the top of the standings.

“When we went into the lead it was important that we don’t give them a log point.

“We had to get 5 points and give them nothing, now there’s a whole match between us and them for the top spot.

“We’ll have to wait and see what Tukkies does in the rest of the tournament, because they are actually on par with us if you take into account that they have a game in hand.

“I think the battle for the number one position on the log will be between Maties and Tukkies.

In the capital city the University of Proteas Tuks annihilated the Central University of Technology Ixias with a 100-0 drubbing.

In Potchefstroom the defending champions Pukke were stunned with a 22-13 loss to Wits and UJ beat the Madibaz 36-28 in Johannesburg.

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport