The St Andrew’s College first rugby side played their first match of the season in a blustery Uitenhage on Saturday, against a highly rated Daniel Pienaar team.
The St Andrew’s College first rugby side played their first match of the season in a blustery Uitenhage on Saturday, against a highly rated Daniel Pienaar team.
The field was rock-hard – and so was the match, as the two sides battled for early control. It was St Andrew’s, however, who seized the advantage and went 3-0 up after a Ryan Horne penalty.
St Andrew's backed this up with some fantastic interplay between backs and forwards that resulted in Matt Andrews scoring in the corner.
The conversion gave St Andrew’s College a 10-0 lead going into half time, although the St Andrew’s team would have felt they had left some scoring opportunities out there.
The second half started in much the same vein before St Andrew's seized the advantage, Stuart Stopforth rounding off another well worked passage of play.
The team had the upper hand, but were struggling to convert into more points, as a rising penalty count was hampering their effort.
It took a piece of magic from Mbulelo Mama to slice the Daniel Pienaar defence open and score under the posts. St Andrew's now led 22-0.
Daniel Pienaar hit back immediately with a try of their own after charging down a kick.
The St Andrew’s team was not done, however, and scored one more try before the end of the match, Ethan Fortuin rounding off a good linebreak from Captain Sintu Manjezi.
Ryan Horne would add the conversion to give St Andrew’s a well deserved 29-7 victory away from home.
