No fewer than 63 Premier League club matches, involving more than 120 of South Africa's top clubs, took place across the 14 provinces last Friday and Saturday.
No fewer than 63 Premier League club matches, involving more than 120 of South Africa's top clubs, took place across the 14 provinces last Friday and Saturday.
One of those was in Grahamstown, when local team the Brumbies hosted Gardens from Port Elizabeth. The match was part of a Community Cup event.
The two sides are part of the EP Grand Challenge.
The match was the round seven out of 16, as Brumbies continue to battle their way in the league.
While this was a match Brumbies should have won, numerous errors and missed kicks were their downfall.
Brumbies, second from the bottom of the log, knew it would be a hard match because Gardens are in the top five of the 16-team league.
Gardens dominated the early stages of the game and scored the first try to take an early lead. One would have thought it would be one-way traffic from here, but some clever play and good defence from Brumbies helped them keep in the game.
As the game marched on, Brumbies received three kickable penalties – but Vincent Mains struggled, with the boot missing all three.
His fourth travelled between the poles, though, and Brumbies were in the game at 3-5 down.
Gardens were awarded a penalty of their own and this took the half-time score 8-3 to Gardens. As early as the sixth minute in the second half, Mains slotted a penalty before Gardens were awarded a penalty try for a dangerous tackle on their try-line.
Gardens guarded their 15-9 lead as Brumbies pushed for a try.
A penalty to Brumbies took them 9-15 behind, with Brumbies still on attack.
With two minutes remaining Sheldon Nelson scored in the corner, giving Brumbies a deficit of one point (14-15 down) with the kick to come.
This would be a difficult kick for Mains, who had missed a number of easier kicks.
Mains stepped up and aimed, but the kick went to the side of the poles.
Play continued in the Brumbies' half for a moment before the final whistle blew and Brumbies again found themselves on the losing side.
However, losing by one point to the fourth-placed Gardens will give Brumbies much-needed confidence as they face sixth-placed Crusaders this weekend.
