White River retained their first place on the Phakisa Premier League log table with a 26-12 victory over Nelspruit at home on Saturday. This was their second win over their Lowveld rivals this season.
Nelspruit tried to play White River at their own game, pushing the pace of play early in the match.
It seemed the plot might work, as Nelspruit had the best of the territory and possession in the first 15 minutes of the game, but White River absorbed the pressure.
Then within two minutes, midway through the half, White River capitalised on unforced errors by Nelspruit to go 14-0 up.
The latter first lost possession. The ball was hacked downfield by White River and Nazo Nkala chased, gathered and dotted down. Eldred James slotted the conversion.
Then Nelspruit threw away possession again. Junior Kotze grabbed the ball, chip kicked and won the chase for his team’s second try. James added the two points.
From here White River controlled the match.
White River again used their speed to drive Nelspruit onto their own try line and right wing Gert Pieterse claimed the resulting try.
Nelspruit’s first points came late in the half when the referee played a penalty advantage and centre Lucas de Kock jinked through the White River defence to score. Timothy Townsend kicked the conversion.
White River led 19-7 at half-time.
Nkala grabbed his second try in the second half when he chased a grubber, collected the ball at speed and went over.
Nelspruit attempted to close the gap on the scoreboard, but the home teams confidently handled all that came their way.
A last-minute try by Nelspruit’s Jos de Jager was too little too late. White River deserved the win. They played with more hunger and fed off Nelspruit’s errors with lightning quick counter-attacks.
On Saturday June 22 Nelspruit will play away to Witbank and White River will host the Highlanders from Newcastle.White River II beat Nelspruit II 38-10, and White River III defeated Nelspruit III 19-0.