The Ultra Liquors Ballito Dolphins are upwardly mobile in their rugby league, and now look forward to three home games in a row.

An away fixture against the Pietermaritzburg Rugby Club, which is the newly formed merger of the Maritzburg Collegians and Voortrekker Old Boys, proved a perfect momentum builder at the weekend.

The Dolphins 2nd XV kicked off first, making their match time on Friday evening by the skin of their teeth amid the week-ending rush hour for commuters heading home.

A hurried warm-up showed when the PMB 2nds ran out to an early lead, dotting down for two converted tries and adding a penalty to take the score to 17-0.

“But as is their wont these days the Dolphins fought back admirably with two tries of their own to trail 17-12,” said Dolphins chairman, Mark Svenningsen.

“Unfortunately they couldn’t reel in the entire deficit and that was the final score.”

The Dolphins 1st XV were able to use the extra time before their 9pm kick off to get their bodies ready for the brutal encounter, with no love lost between the teams.

It was a perfect start for the Ballito men as they finished off two early tries, but missed the conversions to leave the score at 10-0 to the away team.

“Rugby is a game won by the forwards with the backs determining by how much,” said Svenningsen.

“The Dolphins pack laid a perfect platform for the exciting backs to strut their stuff and Leighton Taljaard claimed a hat-trick of tries! Wanga Shumi continued his great form to add a fourth.”

Pietermaritzburg did register two unconverted tries but it was too little too late as the Dolphins finished as deserved 31-10 winners.

The win included a bonus point and catapulted the Dolphins into the top three of the league standings ahead of three home games on the bounce.

The Dolphins play Amanzimtoti this Saturday, Hillcrest on June 8 and Kokstad on June 15.

“Home games are now held at Oaklands Equestrian estate on Saturday afternoons with both food and drink on sale,” Svenningsen said.

“With many of the Dolphin seniors being school and junior Dolphins coaches, these home games are a great opportunity to bring the kids to support their coach and rugby heroes!”

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