Helpies walking the green mile to beat Eldoraigne
Hoërskool Eldoraigne hosted Helpmekaar Kollege on their Green Mile on Saturday 11 March 2017 in Centurion on a sunny day with almost no wind to influence proceedings on a rugby field which was in a beautiful condition.
The Eldoraigne Drake (dragons), enjoying home field advantage, was pipped as the early favourites to win the match. Eldoraigne played in their second match of the season after winning comfortably the weekend before in Polokwane. For Helpies it was their first outing of the season.
Helpies selected a younger team than is popularly believed. With 9 grade 11 players and 4 in the starting line-up, one less than Eldoraigne, the mix of experienced capped players and new blood was an interesting unknown before match day.
Helpmekaar prevailed with a strong running game and won the match 36(24) – 17(0). As the score indicates, it was a game of two halves.
Eldoraigne sent an early warning to opponents this season with their dominant scrum performance. After a massive effort against Pietersburg the previous weekend, forcing 3 scrum penalties, Eldoraigne knew they had a trick up their sleeve heading into this match. They did not disappoint either, forcing 4 scrum penalties against Helpies, including a yellow card against the replacement loosehead prop Triston Venter, in a show of total dominance in this department, with the only blemish perhaps the single heel against the head achieved by Helpies hooker Dameon Venter. The front row of Bester, Heymans and Tori got the better of their opponents early on and from the first scrum, it was clear that the Helpies front row was in for a long afternoon. The expected first-game rust was evident as handling errors in the first half did not help Helpies in this regard as the teams scrummed down 11 times, with Eldoraigne winning 9 of the battles.
In the lineout play, hooker Heymans of Eldoraigne battled a bit to find his jumpers and Helpies debut locks Kruger and Amiras poached a number of balls. The Helpies lineouts were a class apart. The co-ordination between Venter and his jumpers, especially Clarke at the back, was excellent. Dameon Venter also scored the first try of the season after 7 minutes in the first half.
In the loose, it was a tough contest with Helpies having a slight edge with their fetcher Mark Snyman and blindside flanker Ben Clarke running rampant whilst Charl Basson impressed for Eldoraigne. The mobility of the big men of Eldoraigne also impressed with the 126kg Tori Maritz and the lock Gerhard Lotter doing well. Maritz was also rewarded with a deserving try in the second half. Eldoraigne missed injured flanker Franco van Wyk, who is expected back for their game against Monnas in their next match.
The hookers were both very active in the loose and mention needs to be made of the leadership and quality of play of the Eldoraigne captain Reynard Heymans. Helpies loosehead Ignis Meyer was a thorn in the flesh of his opponents. For Eldoraigne lock, Gerhard Lotter, looked the real deal, dishing out punishment at will.
At no 9 it was two different scenarios as Eldoraigne had an abundance of quality ball from the base of the scrum making Calitz’s job easier than his counterpart Ruhan Viviers, who was constantly on the back foot and under pressure. Viviers was one of the Helpies who deserves mention as his service was nevertheless of a high quality to fly-half Tristan Oosthuizen. Calitz kicked a beauty of a box kick which put a flying Pietersen away for Eldoraigne’s first try midway through the second half.
Oosthuizen was superb, especially in the first half, absorbing the pressure and getting his centres away very well. His kicking game was spot on, slotting over 4 conversions and a penalty before he was substituted in the 2nd half. Marvin Pietersen, Eldo flyhalf, was a livewire with the ball in hand, always looking for opportunities but at times seem to over-elaborate a bit leading to Helpmekaar centres having a field day on defence as they ruthlessly picked off the Eldoraigne centres in midfield whilst running with the ball themselves almost at will. Pietersen’s line kicking was poor, though, undoing much of the hard work done by the pack in the scrums, simply handing the ball back to David Cary and Zack Boonzaaier on quite a few occasions and allowing them to set up effective counter attacks from deep.
The new combination of Jansen van Vuuren and the experienced Jeremy Randall worked very well, making sure the wingers and fullback came into action quite often, leading to two tries directly in winger Tommy van Tonder and fullback par excellence David Cary. David Cary was red hot on attack and much is expected of him this year. For Eldoraigne opportunities were less to impress out wide but outside centre Riaan Burger needs mention as he was their best player in the backline and looked like he had a lot of rugby in him.
The difference between the teams was ultimately in running with the ball in hand and apart from the flyers the hooker Venter, #8 Lehan Du Toit and blindside flanker Clarke were excellent in getting Helpmekaar over the advantage line at will. The speed of SA Schools A representative Mark Snyman is something to behold. His balance at full tilt is incredible, and he entertained with long runs on more than one occasion, setting up play 40 metres down the field.
Eldoraigne faces the Hoërskool Monument in their next fixture at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg whilst Helpmekaar Kollege will host Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool at home in their next fixture this coming weekend.
Points:
For Helpmekaar 36 (24) points through tries by Dameon Venter, David Cary, Tommy van Tonder, Michael Amiras, Frederik van Deventer. Tristan Oosthuizen converted 4 of the tries and added a penalty in the first half to take his tally for the day to 11 points.
For Eldoraigne 17(0) points through tries by Marvin Pietersen, Reynard Heymans and Charl Bester. One try was converted by Pietersen.