SA Rugby’s annual Youth Weeks tournaments came to a highly anticipated conclusion in Cape Town this week with the U18 Craven Week bringing together the best of South African schools’ rugby talent. Day 1 produced some great rugby that kept the spectators on the edge of their seats.
Fixtures for Monday, 4 July 2022
Western Province 34-18 Border
Western Province launched wave after wave of attack and scored a converted try within the first three minutes of the match. Border replied with a penalty after Western Province scored their second try, with a converted penalty to reduce the hosts' lead to 12-03. Despite another try by Western Province, Border clawed their way back into the match and with fifteen minutes to go in the first half Border deservedly converted a second penalty to reduce the gap to 06-19.
During the last fifteen minutes of the first half, the match was balanced with both sides using their point-scoring opportunities, however, the try by Border saw them reducing Western Province's lead to just 22-11. It is game on with the momentum slightly in the favour of Border.
Western Province scored the first try, as with the start of the first half, within the first three minutes after great work by their outside backs. The Border kept the pressure on the hosts and set up camp in Western Province's 22m for the last seven minutes and with fifteen minutes left on the clock and despite trailing 11-27 they are still in with a chance to beat the early tournament favourites.
During the last fifteen minutes of the match, Western Province upped the pace of their attack as well as defence, which led to the Border making several errors. One such error saw Western Province controlling a ball knocked on by Border to run fifty meters and score another converted try (34-11) with nine minutes left to play.
Border refused to go home quietly and scored their second try of the match with just four minutes to go. Western Province was still in the lead 34-18 which was also the final score of this exciting match.
Scorers:
WP: Tries: Luca Bakkes, Zachary Porten, Jameel de Jongh, Luke Graham (2). Conversions: Thurlon Williams (4).
Border - Tries: Tiaan Jacobs, Lindani Dweba, Michael Maseti. Conversion: Lesego Bota. Penalty: Lesego Bota (2).
Western Province XV 65-07 Boland
Western Province started with a mistake from the kick-off, however, they were quick to recover and score their first try from a 5m lineout-maul after just four minutes of play, which was followed by a converted penalty to lead 10-00 after just seven minutes of play. Western Province continued their dominance and added two more tries in fifteen minutes to lead 22-05 with fifteen minutes to go in the first half.
Western Province continued their dominance over the last fifteen minutes of the first half and scored two more tries to go into the second half with a commanding 34-00 lead. Boland at this stage are not even close to being part of this match with very little quality ball going their way.
Boland opened the scoring with a converted try in the second half after a great start, upping the speed at which they played. It took Western Province a good ten minutes to reply with a converted try of their own.
As the game progressed Boland slowly but surely clawed their way back into the game with only sometimes desperate defending by Western Province preventing Boland to add points on the scoreboard. Western Province shifted to fifth gear during the last ten minutes to win deservedly 65-07. Western Province XV to the other teams attending.
Scorers
WP XV: Tries: Matthew Beckett (2), Danio Botha, Hugo-Ben Horn (2), Aiden Muller, Angelo Daniels (2), Jandre Genis (2). Conversions: Jandre Genis (6). Penalty: Jandre Genis.
Boland: Try: Matt Romao.
Sharks 33-05 Valke
The Sharks dominated early on and led 06-00 after converting two penalties with twenty minutes still to go in the first half. A brilliant cross-kick by the Valke flyhalf was collected on the sideline which saw the Valke going over in the corner for the first try of the match to trail with 05-06 and fifteen minutes to go.
The rest of the first half was even with both sides wasting try-scoring opportunities. The Sharks were happy to convert penalties to put scoreboard pressure on the Valke and led 12-05 at the halftime break.
The first twenty minutes of the second half was "dominated" by the Valke, however, no points were added by the two sides. With thirteen minutes to go the Sharks scored their second try to extend their lead to a "misleading" 19-05.
The Sharks scored two more tries during the last fifteen minutes of the match to secure a 33-05 win with the Valke sometimes guilty of playing "enterprising" rugby which resulted in several mistakes made on the attack by the Valke, costing them much-needed scoring opportunities.
Scorers:
Sharks: Tries: Simphiwe Ngobese, Wandile Mlaba, Lili Bester. Conversions: AJ Knoetze (3). Penalties: Deano Boesak (4).
Valke: Try: Siyabonga Twala
Eastern Province 22-39 Griquas
Griquas started like a house on fire dominating the Eastern Province in all aspects with the speed of their outside backs testing the Eastern Province's defence from the word go. Griquas was the first to open their account on the scoreboard with a converted penalty to which Eastern Province was quick to reply with a converted penalty of their own.
With fifteen minutes still to play Griquas scored their first try of the match to stretch their lead to 13-03 which was a true reflection of the action on the field. The defence of Eastern Province held up until that stage although the linebreaks of Griquas started to happen more often with only the desperate defence keeping Griquas from scoring more tries.
Griquas went into the halftime break comfortably in the lead with 25-03 and is still dominating all aspects of this match. Although the score may not indicate it the defence of Eastern Province must be mentioned for their efforts that denied Griquas several more tries than the three they scored in the first half.
The second half saw Easter Province steadily clawing their way back into the match. With eighteen minutes left on the clock, Eastern Province scored a great try to reduce the lead of the Griquas to nineteen points (08-27), however, the Griquas struck back immediately with their fourth try to restore their twenty-four point lead fifteen minutes to go in the second half.
The last fifteen minutes "belonged" to Eastern Province and two unanswered tries by Eastern Province did cut Griquas' lead to just ten points with five minutes to go. Unfortunately for Eastern Province, a late try by Griquas with seconds to go secured a well-deserved win for the Northern Cape team with 39-22.
Scorers:
Griquas: Tries: Damian McClean, JP Senekal, Melvin Diedericks, Elridge Jack, Ruben Pienaar. Conversions: Wynand Botha (4). Penalties: Botha (2)
EP: Tries: Burrie van Heerden, Joshua Swart, Max du Pisani. Conversions: Logan Muller (2). Penalty: Muller.
