By Chesley Daniels
It was heartbreak and despair for Trying Stars – the pride of Alexandria, Ndlambe Municipality and Sedru, as they crashed out of the Eastern Cape Super 14 at the penultimate stage after a controversial winning penalty at the Wentzel Park Sports Ground in Alexandria on Saturday afternoon.
Stars narrowly lost 13-15 to Fort Beaufort United.
With a controversial denial of a 77th minute penalty conversion by replacement utility backline player Garth “Gaga” Oosthuizen, the final score remained 15-13, as FB United went through to the final.
It was a game full of controversy with Stars, the home team, left feeling hard done by after a penalty kick they perceived to have been converted was ruled otherwise by the match officials.
The stage had been set for a thrilling encounter as thousands of supporters gathered at the fortress Wentzel Park, and the game didn’t disappoint. Stars came in as the overall log leaders after the group stages and rightful hosts of the semifinal as per the rules of the competition.
Both teams entered the arena as the only unbeaten teams and this made the contest even more special.
The game started at a high tempo with United bringing their A-game, as expected with their bigger forwards. Stars defensive systems were on point and stood tall with flanker Melikhaya Koopman leading the pack on the defense, with very hard hits and tackles for the first 15 minutes that took the sting out of United.
The home side started gaining ball possession and set over on attacking mode as they asked questions which resulted in Stars gaining a penalty, as wing Lucian Millborrow slotted over to give his side an early 3-0 lead.
With United out of the game, Stars took the game to the visitors with their pivotal veteran and playmaker, flyhalf Kelvano King dictating matters from the back, putting a neat kick through for Millborrow to chase and collect to score in the left hand corner. Stars further dictated matters and were all over United who had no answers for the pace and interplay from the forwards and backs.
A collective effort try from the home side, which started from more than 60m back, resulted in prop forward Migeal Cannon giving Stars a healthy 13-0 lead.
The visitors’ coaching staff must have had a stern halftime talk with the United players as they entered the field with a totally different mindset in the second half. They scored their first points of the game via a penalty kick through their replacement scrumhalf. The boys of Bofolo threw the ball around and utilised their big forwards to gain momentum, while also accumulating scrum penalties with their heavy forwards at scrum time.
Both teams’ discipline came into question as yellow cards were issued for law infringements.
United continued to press on and put the home side under pressure in the scrums. A controversial try by United’s 8th man in the 31st minute was initially disallowed, but later awarded. At this stage, for the first time in the match, United took a 15-13 lead.
Stars attacked from their own half with minutes left on the clock in search of the winner, leading to a highly controversial moment in the match. In the 37th minute of the second half, Stars received a penalty for a dangerous tackle by a United player. Seemingly unsure whether to go for the line or kick at the poles, the home side’s captain eventually signalled a kick at the poles.
In stepped replacement scrum half Garth Gaga Oosthuizen 25m out and close to the touchline, to take what would have been the winning kick. He neatly struck the ball high towards the upright, and with everyone on the ground jumping up in delight believing the ball was over, the officials were in doubt and after deliberating, decided the ball was not over.
This erupted the entire ground as the spectators couldn’t believe their eyes. Minutes after the controversial moment, United got possession of the ball at a scrum and kicked the ball out, as the referee blew his whistle for full time. This left the players of Stars in tears and in disappointment, having led 13-0 at some point.
FB United strongly recovered from a seemingly impossible deficit to snatch the victory from the jaws of life in probably one of the greatest comebacks in the EC Super Rugby history.
This has been an incredible run of form by FB United as the only unbeaten team left in the competition. They are the only Wild Card team ever to play in the final. They played four matches away from home as an extra special achievement.
Stars’ head coach Alan Cannon expressed his disappointment after the game. “Unfortunately we lost the game today, it’s a heartbreaking story but we have to go on. We were actually in charge of the game and certain decisions of the referee didn’t go our way.”
Cannon added: “We have lodged an official complaint against the match officials and dispute the outcome of the game.”
The final will be contested between Progress and FB United on Saturday.
