Attack held sway over defence on day two of the SA Rugby Under-18 Craven Week in Cape Town on Tuesday, with four exciting matches keeping a good crowd at Rondebosch Boys High School’s Tinkie Heyns Field on the edge of their seats.
All four matches provided delightful rugby, with tries galore as teams approached the return of this prestigious tournament, after a two-year absence, with a positive attitude and willingness to give it a go. The Pumas, Thepa Trading Motswako Griffons, SWD and Blue Bulls all recorded wins, but had to work really hard for their respective victories over Limpopo Blue Bulls, Leopards, Free State and Golden Lions.
Blue Bulls 38-19 Golden Lions
Three Lineouts, three driving mauls and three tries are the story of the Bulls' dominance of the first fifteen minutes of the game to lead 21-00 with twenty minutes to go in the first half. The Lions scored their first points with a converted penalty after twenty minutes of action. The Lions are slowly clawing their way back into the game at this stage. The Bulls dominated the last fifteen minutes of the first half, however, they could only add three points via a converted penalty for their efforts before the Lions scored their second try with the time already up on the clock. The Bulls go into the second half with a 24-12 lead.
The Blue Bulls scored a try early in the second to lead 31-12, however, the Lions struck back with a try of their own with twenty-five minutes of play left in the match. The match, unfortunately, lost most of its structure with both teams attacking from anywhere on the field while defence was not on many of the players' minds.
With fifteen minutes to go, the Bulls were shown a yellow card after they were warned continuously by the referee, this was followed by a second yellow card five minutes later which left the Bulls fighting for survival with thirteen players on the field. The Blue Bulls did a great job to not only close out the match but managed to score another try from a maul to convincingly beat the Lions 38-19.
Sorers
Blue Bulls - Tries: Hanro Venter (3), Jayde Austin, De Wet Lottering. Conversions: Stehan Heymans (5). Penalty: Stehan Heymans.
Golden Lions - Try: Joel Leotlela (2), Sifiso Magwaza. Conversions: Tyler Sefoor (2).
SWD 29-19 Free State
SWD dominated the first five minutes of play but was unable to score any points for their efforts. The Free State scored the first points of the much with a converted try the first time they entered the SWD 22m to lead 07-00 with twenty-eight minutes to play in the first half. The Cheetahs are playing a great fifteen-man brand of rugby and are threatening to run the SWD off their feet. The SWD changed their tactics and opted to kick the ball behind the Free State's backline and with rush defence forced valuable penalties from which they converted two penalties to trail 06-14 with fifteen minutes to go in the first half.
The Cheetahs scored their second try with twelve minutes still to play in the first half to which SWD replied with a brilliant try of their own in the corner following brilliant handling. The SWD surprising many and are trailing with "just" 11-14 against the Free Staters who was one of the 2022 u/18 Craven Week early favourites.
SWD started the second half like a house on fire and added eight points with a try and converted penalty to stun the crowd and boys from Bloemfontein. A further converted penalty for SWD saw SWD's lead increase to 22-14 and twenty minutes to play.
SWD now in complete control slowly applied pressure on the Free State using their big forwards to gain precious territory until they scored another try in the corner. SWD now leading with 29-14 and eleven minutes to go. SWD set a new standard for rugby at the Craven Week with the brilliant interplay between their backs and forwards combined with the necessary brute force of their forwards and flair of their backs.
With two minutes left to play the Cheetahs scored a consolation try with the SWD a deserved winner with 29-19.
SWD - Tries: Jamil Pretorius, Antonio Bruiners, Keith Syster. Conversion: John-Taylor Strydom. Penalties: John-Taylor Strydom (2), Kobus Janse van Rensburg (2).
Free State - Tries: Lukas Meyer (2), Jermairon Ruiters. Conversions: Bradley Giddy (2).
Griffons 38-15 Leopards
The first twenty minutes of the match were played at a fast pace with the Griffons scoring three tries late in the first twenty minutes to take a deserved 19-03 lead. The Griffons at this stage started to run the defence of the Leopards to tatters with a big score seeming likely. The Griffons continued their dominance for the rest of the first half to lead 31-03 at the halftime break.
The Leopards were the more dominant team in the second half, however, great defence by the Griffons kept the hard running Leopards from scoring several "deserving" tries. An exciting much with brilliant running by both sides ended with the Griffons walking off the field the winners with 38-15.
Griffons - Tries: Wian Fourie, Fano Linde, Julian Samuels, Curt Smith, Tiaan Malan, Jayleigh Arends. Conversions: Curt Smith (4).
Leopards - Tries: Jaden Fredericks, Dries Scheepers. Conversion: Grant Coetzee. Penalty: Grant Coetzee
Pumas 41-14 Limpopo Blue Bulls
The match started with both teams early on willing to let the ball do the work. The Pumas were the more successful with their efforts and scored two early tries to take a 17-00 lead with just ten minutes of play. The action continued with the crowd on their feet with Limpopo slowly getting in the game to go into the last fifteen minutes of the match trailing 24-07.
The Limpopo Bulls were the "better" team during the last fifteen minutes of the first half, however, several mistakes on attack stopped them to score any points while the Pumas used the one chance they had to score another converted try to lead 31-07 at the halftime break.
The Pumas wrestled the momentum back from the Limpopo Bulls within the first ten minutes of the second half losing a bit of the excitement with only the Pumas able to add a converted penalty to the scoreboard. The rest of the first twenty minutes of the second half has lost most of the excitement with the Limpopo Bulls once again the more "dominant" team while their mistakes did not stop.
The Limpopo Bulls eventually scored their second try with still ten minutes left of this first match of day two of the 2022 Craven Week. The score did not change until the last seconds of the match when the Pumas added another seven points. The Limpopo Bulls are definitely "deserving" more points on the board. The Pumas won 41-14.
Pumas - Tries: Ben-Frederik Jansen van Vuuren, Danny van Staden, Drikus Greeff, Grant de Jager, Philasande Ntshapela, Francois Odendaal . Conversions: Hardus Visser (4). Penalty: Hardus Visser.
Limpopo - Tries: HJ Janse van Rensburg, Philippus Ludick. Conversions: Tristan Brits (2).
