The Graeme College first rugby side got their season back on track with a fine win over Alexander Road, while St Andrew’s and Kingswood had superb wins over Grey and Dale respectively.
Graeme enjoyed a 55-15 victory over Alexander Road. The Graeme forwards were dominant and the back-line showed fine skill to score some great tries.
The Graeme College first rugby side got their season back on track with a fine win over Alexander Road, while St Andrew’s and Kingswood had superb wins over Grey and Dale respectively.
Graeme enjoyed a 55-15 victory over Alexander Road. The Graeme forwards were dominant and the back-line showed fine skill to score some great tries.
Graeme dominated in the scrum and contested well on Alexander Road lineout ball to secure a surfeit of possession.
Graeme led 24-3 at halftime after tries by scrumhalf Francois Nel, centre Aubrey Mpongoma (two) and winger Juandré Nel. Flyhalf Alex Banfield converted two of the tries.
In the second half Graeme continued to apply pressure and ran in a further five tries by Nel (two), prop Chad Banfield, hooker Taiga Haywood and winger Jonno Nunn.
Alex Banfield converted three of these tries to complete the total. The St Andrew’s College 1st XV showed great discipline on defence and fantastic patience on attack in the encounter with Grey High School on Saturday.
The ability to effectively close down all the Grey attacking options in the midfield and out wide from the beginning of the game and matching them up front in the scrums and lineouts frustrated the opposition and disrupted their pattern of play.
Even though both the St Andrew’s tries were scored after sustained attack by the forward pack there was some great work done by the backs in breaking the Grey defensive lines and had them scrambling at times throughout the game.
“The way in which the 1st XV played on Saturday is an indication that they have great faith in each other to do the job as a team and they can be commended on a fine 20–13 victory,” said Harley Searle, the St Andrew’s 1st team coach.
Kingswood College ran out narrow winners in a titanic schoolboy rugby match in Grahamstown on the weekend, edging out visitors, Dale College 15–14 in an enthralling game.
Both sides were full of running and their defensive patterns were well organised and structured. Kingswood opened the scoring through a penalty by fullback, Scott van Breda after some sustained pressure in Dale territory. He later added to his tally with another penalty from just inside the Dale half.
In reply Dale missed two penalty attempts at goal before Kingswood had a try disallowed when lock, Arran Briceland, gathered a misdirected lineout throw from the Dale hooker and crashed over the line only to have flyhalf Steven Hansel adjudged not back to be back 10m.
Another try scoring opportunity was squandered a short while later when scrumhalf, Selo Phafane lost control of the ball over the line as he stretched to score from a good snipe around the base of a ruck.
Dale had the last say though when they muscled their way over the line after being awarded a number of penalties close to the Kingswood line.
The try was converted and the visitors led 7–6 at halftime. The second half saw a repeat of the first half with Kingswood securing two more penalties and having another try disallowed due to a forward pass before Dale scored a converted try to put them 14–12 ahead with two minutes to play.
Kingswood managed to gain possession shortly after the kickoff through a charged down kick as Dale tried to clear their lines and after taking the ball through a number of phases were awarded a penalty which van Breda calmly converted to the sound of the final whistle amid tumultuous applause from the hometown supporters.
