By Chesley Daniels
The opening round of the SCORE EPRU Grand Challenge Bottom 12 Competition saw home side Lily White of Makhanda record an impressive 22-17 win over Aberdeen, in front of a large local crowd at the Lavender Valley Sports Ground on Saturday afternoon.
The Blues (Lily White) were in front at halftime leading by 8-0.
Hundreds of rugby followers and lovers came out to support their local Grand Challenge team, the Blues, who entertained them with some exciting and spectacular running rugby. Both teams scored three tries as the fixture was played in a very good spirit and rugby was the ultimate winner at the end of the day.
In the first half, both teams ran on to the field with their new sponsored SCORE rugby jerseys from the title sponsor and very much eager to kick the competition off on a winning note. The home side started confidently, putting pressure on the visitors with their high intensity game.
Although the Blues took the game to the visitors and dominated the early stages, they couldn’t manage to turn the pressure into points. Both teams also had numerous scoring opportunities but made unforced errors at crucial stages with the try line in front of them. Lily White dominated at scrum time and received numerous scrum penalties but opted to kick for touch instead of taking the points on offer by kicking at goal. A late first half try and penalty by the home side saw them heading into the break with an 8-0 lead.
The second half was even more physical and with intent, as both teams came hard at each other. The Blues’ skillful backline started to give the ball more air and running good lines out wide.
Centre Lakhanya Sam was a handful with ball in hand on attack and put his players nicely into space in open play.
Aberdeen didn’t lie down either and came hard at the Blues, running at every opportunity with the ball possession on offer. The visitors scrumming improved immensely later in the second half and gained much needed confidence by winning a few scrum penalties.
Aberdeen reduced the lead with a try by eighth man Ricardo Saaiman who scored the first of his two tries. Siya Hoyi extended the lead for the Blues with a fine try, taking the score to 15-7. Aberdeen continued to put pressure on the home side and that led to Saaiman scoring his second try of the match. The Blues lead 15-12.
The home side then capitalized and replied immediately with a converted try to put the pressure back on the visitors, extending the lead to 22-12. The Blues’ tackling let the team down in the second half as they conceded soft tries due to sloppy defending.
Andy Jantjies scored a late second half try for Aberdeen to narrow the lead to 22-17.
An intense last period of the match almost saw Aberdeen scoring the winning try with their inside centre Ricardo Minaar taking a gap from a loose ball and sprinted almost 60 metres to score, but was tackled just short of the try line. The final whistle went off moments later as Lily White grabbed a narrow 22-17 win.
Blues captain and eighth man Masona was voted the Grocott’s Mail/Daniels MEDIA Man of the Match for his sterling all-round performance, leading his side to a well earned victory. He was strong and powerful with ball in hand on attack, solid in the scrums and his brutal tackling was just outstanding. He also ensured numerous turnovers at the breakdowns.
The Blues’ secretary, Reggie Waldick, was very happy with his side’s opening win. “I am very happy with the win and it’s always important that we should win our home games. Our forwards played very well but we could see our team is still unfit and we need to improve our poor tackling. We are surely ready for St Marks this weekend in Alicedale and we are going there to win.”
