Grahamstown Brumbies Rugby captain and flyhalf, Vincent Mains slotted a late 45 metre drop goal to ensure a nail biting 21-18 victory for his team this weekend.
Grahamstown Brumbies Rugby captain and flyhalf, Vincent Mains slotted a late 45 metre drop goal to ensure a nail biting 21-18 victory for his team this weekend.
The Brumbies played against Zwide United from Port Elizabeth in an Eastern Province Rugby Union Sectional Cup knock out encounter in front of a large crowd at the Rhodes University Great Field on Saturday.
The Brumbies/Zwide game started with great pace and intensity. The Brumbies launched wave after wave of attack and caused Zwide to make early mistakes.
Brumbies took an early lead through a well struck penalty by Mains for a 3-0 lead. The visitors started to gain momentum playing their favourite style of rugby with their huge forwards forcing the Brumbies to make mistakes.
A penalty in the 25th minute for Zwide levelled the score at 3-3. Minutes later, Brumbies were awarded a penalty in the visitors’ 22 metre area, which was once again on target for Mains to regain the lead, 6-3 in the 28th minute.
Titanic Battle
The Zwide side started to look dangerous in the ruck and mauls gaining off-the-feet penalties, with the dangerous boot of their kicker slotting a long range 50 metre penalty to once again level the score at 6-6 halfway through the first half. Mains replied with another penalty three minutes later for Brumbies to once again take the lead.
Zwide then found the gap in the defence and scored to take the lead for the first time in the match. On the stroke of half time, Mains slotted a penalty to take his side into a narrow 12-11 lead at halftime.
The second half was scrappy to begin with, as both teams made unforced errors. The Brumbies side started to lose focus, and their flanker Antonio Mahapi received a yellow card for slowing the ball down at the breakdown.
Dying Moments
Mains put over an early second half penalty, and then added to this in the last 15 minutes of the game for Brumbies to stretch the lead to 18-11. Zwide came back with a bang and scored their second try to level the scores at 18-18 with ten minutes of play left. Mains had the final say with a massive 45 metre drop goal during injury time: putting the Brumbies into the next round of the competition.
Brumbies head coach, Ricardo Abrahams said that the game was brilliant in general and that experience and the vital changes during the game took them through. He congratulated the whole team for a collective effort and hoped they would carry the winning momentum into the next phase of the competition.
In other matches, the Harlequins PE narrowly beat Trying Stars 1st from Alexandria by 31-26, while Brumbies 1st reserves lost 24-5 to Harlequins 1st Reserves and Swallows 1st reserves also lost 12-19 to St Marks 1st Reserves PE.
