Nelspruit Rugby Club outclassed Barberton Rugby Club 49-19 at Coronation Park on Saturday, May 16.
It was a game of two halves, with the first evenly matched, and Nelspruit lifting their game in the second.
Nelspruit eighth man Ricardo Correia was like a raging bull on the field, tackling hard, winning turnovers and scoring four tries.

Barberton scored within two minutes with Juandré de Beer barging over. Bernick Bezuidenhout slotted the conversion.

Seven minutes later Nelspruit’s Nkateko Phakula powered over the try line with Johan Aspeling adding the two points.

Aspeling kicked a penalty goal shortly afterwards to give the visitors the lead.

But a determined home team hit back with Denys Snyman going over for a try, converted by Bezuidenhout.

Nelspruit scored two more tries in the first half, by Justice Mkhonto and Correia, neither of which were converted, for a 20-14 half-time lead.

The second half was the Nelspruit ‘show’ with Correia in the lead role.

The hard-working number 8 scored in the 43rd, 54th and 57th minutes, making a mockery of Barberton’s defence. Aspeling succeeded with one conversion.

Benito Goeda claimed Nelspruit’s next try. Gino Marsh took over the goal-kicking duty and nailed the conversion.

Barberton’s only second-half points came from a try by Sibongamusa Dube who outsprinted the Nelspruit defence.

Sibusiso Kubayi added to the rout of Barberton on the day by scoring the last try of the game, which went unconverted.

The score line was a fair reflection of the game. Barberton had no answer to Nelspruit’s second-half onslaught.

Other Super League results:
• Witbank 22-24 Sasol Secunda
• White River 104-0 Newcastle Highlanders.

Fixtures for Saturday, May 23 (home team first):
• Witbank v Barberton
• Highlanders v Nelspruit
• Sasol v White River.