Michaelhouse clings to lead against Kearsney

KEARSNEY travelled to Balgowan to play Michaelhouse on a clear, sunny and warm day in the Midlands at the weekend.

The hosts started at a frantic pace and had some good runs to show their intent from the kick-off. Only resolute defence from the visitors denied the hosts any tries, with open side flanker Luke Croshaw and no 8 James Miller doing sterling work for Kearsney.

Michaelhouse did eventually open their account with a penalty by captain Pretorius. Kearsney responded soon after the ensuing kick-off with hooker Josh van Vuuren ripping the ball from the Michaelhouse flyhalf and outsprinted the cover defence for 45m to dive over for a James Tedder conversion and a 7-3 lead.

Michaelhouse’s left winger then received a pass on the short side in his own half of the field. He masterfully “grubbered” the ball around his direct opponent and collected the kind bounce to round the Kearney fullback and outsprinting the cover for a brilliant individual unconverted try for a 8-7 lead. The last period of the first half was dominated by the hosts’ forwards with strong maul and pick and go tactics. Kearsney however did have some try scoring opportunities but their lineouts let them down and many attack launches went astray. Tedder did slot another penalty during this play for a 10-8 lead.

Somewhat disappointing for the visitors was a disallowed try when Tedder rounded his opponent and when diving over the try line was adjudged as touch in goal and a 22 drop out was awarded to Michaelhouse, who added a penalty on the half time whistle for 11-10 lead.

Michaelhouse played the better rugby in the first 10 minutes of the second half and managed two penalty kicks from flyhalf Pretorius to stretch their lead to 17-10. Kearsney attempted a backline move from a right hand scrum but poor handling forced a kick up field with which Michaelhouse exploited poor defence by the visitors to score a converted try for a comfortable 24-10 lead.

Soon another penalty followed after a Kearsney scrum infringement which Pretorius converted for what now seemed an unassailable lead. The visitors then began a belated fight back attempt through a counter attack from a kick receipt making good ground on the right hand side of the field with Mitchell Nesbit and Tedder. Flyhalf Cameron Ritchie stepped close to the line after receiving the ball from a breakdown from a quick tap penalty and off loaded to centre Matthew Watts to dive over close to the left hand upright. Tedder converted and Kearsney was back in contention at 17-27.

Ritchie put Kearsney back on attack soon after the kick-off with a well-executed corner kick. Kearsney showed more intent on attack now and after two failed line-out driving mauls eventually forced a penalty five meters from the Michaelhouse try line. The visitors executed a penalty move with lock Jared Meyer diving over for Tedder to convert and a 24-27 score line.

After some delay in attending to the injured Michaelhouse fly half, Kearsney attempted a last minute attack but the hosts defended well and the final whistle followed soon afterwards.

Outstanding players for Kearsney were Tedder, Dixon, Van Vuuren, Ritchie and Meyer.