By Chesley Daniels
In a thrilling Epru Grand Challenge Top 12 fixture at Lavender Valley Sports Ground on Saturday, Declan Muller’s last-minute penalty secured a narrow 14-12 win for Brumbies 1st XV over Hankey Villagers.
Trailing 6-12 at halftime, Brumbies staged a remarkable second-half comeback.
The win saw the home side Brumbies move to the top four on the overall log standings. Brumbies were very lucky to escape a defeat in front of their faithful as they turned it into a hard-fought, narrow win at the death. Despite playing with 14 men for most of the game, Brumbies came from behind to launch a fantastic second half comeback to secure a win that gave them four log points. Brumbies’ powerful forwards continued their dominance in the scrum but Hankey impressed with their ball skills as they gave the ball lots of air in the first half. Both teams missed kickable penalties at goal whilst both defenses stood firm.
Brumbies had numerous scoring opportunities but couldn’t round off to put points on the board. Hankey were kept at bay in the second half as Brumbies prevented them from scoring any points. The home side should kick themselves as they failed to pick up an all important bonus point by scoring four tries or more.
In the end, Brumbies should be happy with the win as Hankey didn’t make it easy for them and gave the Makhanda side a very hard time until the final whistle.
For Brumbies, Nicklon Williams scored the only try while Declan Muller slotted three penalties.
Swallows vs Enon United
The Sedru champs locked horns with Sundays River champs of 2023 at Albany on Saturday. Swallows, with their backs against the wall and with three losses in the Epru Adams Cup competition, needed a bonus point win to boost their log points and standings in the overall log. They entered the fixture with overwhelming confidence and secured a 58-12 bonus point win over their archrivals. Swallows ran riot and scored nine tries as they hammered Enon in front of a decent crowd.
Ethan Slang September was in devastating form as usual and scored a brace of tries. Other try scorers were: Ruwaal Jansen, Bevan Gill, Silindo Ndike, Neville Jonas, Bradley Christian, Nickwan Plaatjies, Wayne Max. Jason Henson converted four tries and a penalty.
The win put Swallows now in 5th position on the overall log.
St Marks Alicedale vs Windvogel United
St Marks played to a 17-17 draw in Alicedale in their Epru Grand Challenge bottom 12 encounter. United were 17-3 in front and dominated the home side in the first half. A fantastic second half comeback by St Marks saw them manage to gather 14 unanswered points to record a draw in the end.
Issakor Alexander and Jermaine Sias scored tries for St Marks.
