Oakdale hosted Paarl Boishaai in Riversdale in a hard-fought and very exciting match where Oakdale 1stXV had to battle Boishaai 1stXV with 14 men for 55 minutes due to a red card issued to them in the 15th minute of the match.
Boishaai started the match firing on all their cylinders with repeated backline attacking runs playing the ball wide from left to right across the field. This stretched the Oakdale defence and created gaps in the midfield which Boishaai exploited. They scored a converted try under the uprights within the first 5 minutes. Oakdale soon thereafter had an attacking lineout opportunity but lost the throw-in and a dropped ball by their backline on attack was poached by Boishaai and quickly played up to the Oakdale try line, where they scored their second converted try in the 13th minute taking their score to 14-0.
The match took a turn for the worse for Oakdale when one of their forwards was red-carded in the 15th minute for foul play. Boishaai in turn was given a yellow card in the 19th minute. Oakdale used the opportunity to beat the Boishaai defence out wide and score a try in the corner to take the score to 14-5. Oakdale then started to play some good attacking rugby forcing Boishaai into defensive mode in their half conceding penalties which gave Oakdale some scoring opportunities however the solid Boishaai defence held up. The halftime score was 14-5.
The second half started with Boishaai ferociously attacking the Oakdale try line again and scoring their third try after 5 minutes taking the score to 19-5. Oakdale however fought back and applied great attacking pressure with a penalty lineout driving maul which forced a penalty try in the 10th minute to increase their score to 19-12.
The remainder of the half saw each team attacking into the other’s half with exciting play but solid defence by each team prevented further tries. Each team however managed to score a further 3 points with penalty kicks. Boishaai hung on to their lead to beat Oakdale 22-15 however, they were surely relieved with the win as one can only wonder what the final score could have been had Oakdale played the full match with 15 players.
Scorers:
Boishaai: Tries: JC Mars; Divan Fuller, Juan Smal. Conversions: Thurlon Williams (2). Penalties: Thurlon Williams.
Oakdale: Tries: Terlow Prince, Penalty try. Penalties: Kobus van Rensburg.
Teams:
Oakdale 1stXV: 15. Therlow Prins, 14. Keagan Coerecius, 13. James Jonker, 12. Kobus van Rensburg, 11. Pieter Pretorius, 10. Pieter Marais, 9. Jean de Kock, 8. Armand Combrinck, 7. Ramon Uys, 6. Francois du Toit, 5. AJ van Vuuren, 4. Andre Goedhals, 3. Marko Conradie, 2. Jurgen van Staden, 1. Marco Steyn.
Paarl Boishaai 1stXV: 15. JC Mars, 14. Scor Nel, 13. Luke Carew, 12. Handre Nel. 11. Jameel de Jongh, 10. Thurlon Williams, 9. Juan Loots, 8. Hugo Horn, 7. Divan Fuller, 6. Matthew Fick, 5. van Heerden Pretorius, 4. Ben Heydenrych, 3. Bradley Stanfield, 2. Juan Smal, 1. Tian Vorster.
Article by Francois du Toit