St. Andrew's College's time at the Bishops Independent Schools Rugby Festival came to a disappointing end, as they lost 25-17 to a Hilton side that showed dogged determination from the first whistle to the last.
St. Andrew's College's time at the Bishops Independent Schools Rugby Festival came to a disappointing end, as they lost 25-17 to a Hilton side that showed dogged determination from the first whistle to the last.
The KwaZulu-Natal side got off to a flying start, racing into a 10-0 lead. However, St. Andrew's refused to be run over and hit back with a try – scored and converted by centre Matt More.
St. Andrew's continued to surge forward, but were unable to find a breakthrough. Furthermore, their defence proved not to be quite as resolute as Hilton's. St. Andrew's scrum-half Oscar Evans was yellow carded for not rolling away on the stroke of half-time and Hilton doubled their lead from a penalty. Wiith the score at 13-7 at half-time, plenty was still to play for.
St. Andrew's appeared to have regained momentum at the start of the second half, as More nailed a penalty early on.
However, from then on, it was one-way traffic for much of the half. Hilton ran in two tries – one of which was converted, and the game looked all but over.
St. Andrew's hit back, putting significant pressure on the Hilton tryline in the final stages of the game. However, Hilton's defence stood firm. By the time substitute Christian Roebert scored a final try for St. Andrew's – which was converted by More – the damage had already been done.
Hilton's second half was far from perfect. To the contrary, it featured two yellow cards, a charged-down conversion attempt, a late missed penalty, and lengthy spells defending on their try-line. However, they hung on for the win.
Their coach, Brad MacLeod-Henderson, paid tribute to his side's defence. When asked whether or not they won the game for Hilton, he said: "I think so – especially in the second half. Down on the try-line there, we probably kept them out for five or six minutes and I think at the end of the day, that was probably a turning point."
St. Andrew's College coach Gerry Posthumus was livid with his side's display, and attributed the result not to Hilton's defence, but rather, his side being "horribly poor."
"We created so many opportunities and we didn't finish one of them. I'm just frustrated by our inability – and then at the end, we gave them two easy tries."
Posthumus singled out More, Sazi Sandi, and Thomas Stevens for praise, and said that they were pivotal to the St. Andrew's side. He also insisted that the tour as a whole had been a success.
However, he confessed that the game against Hilton was one that his side had badly wanted to win – and that the defeat had left a bitter taste.
