The South African Rugby Union (SARU) Gold Cup Knock Out Tournament once again delivered good rugby as well as a few surprises over the weekend.
In Alexandria, the home side Trying Stars ran away 49-13 dominant winners over Paterson Lions. Stars were ruthless and found themselves with a comfortable 22-3 at halftime. Stars are a very difficult side to beat at home turf and their eight tries were testimony to this. They played some outstanding running rugby with an unstoppable backline who scored all of their team’s tries.
Lions fought back in the second half with two tries, but it was just not enough. The visitors’ defence let them down and made many costly enforced errors. But both teams played exciting running rugby, throwing the ball around and entertaining the large crowd. The iron centre Flinn Cannon was again on fire and stood out for the winning side. He was strong as usual with ball in hand on attack and on numerous occasions broke the line of defence.
Nathan Johannes, the Secretary of Trying Stars, is very satisfied with his team’s first win in the Gold Cup, but believes his men can do better. Johannes also believes the score should have been bigger. Pointing out the errors, he said a lot of work lies ahead.
Old Collegians (OC) of Makhanda went down to Addo and came back against the home side Alderonians with a narrow 14-12 win. OC fought back nicely in the second half after trailing 7-12 towards the end of the game. OC did well to down Aldos in their own backyard after the latter beat Brumbies a fortnight ago. OC are known for their running rugby and were true to form on Saturday.
Aldos led for the majority of the game, but fell in the second half, as the visitors piled on the pressure. After trailing 7-12 in the last five minutes of the game, OC continuously launched attacks. The continuous pressure led to the winning try in the dying moments of the game. Siyabonga Mahapi (centre) slotted the crucial and critical conversion to hand OC a well deserved 14-12 win.
The SEDRU Champs Lily White pitched up late for their clash against Kirkwood in Kirkwood and gave away soft points in the process.
