Warriors stumble against Harlequins

THE Fidelty South Coast Warriors, wearing their new away game kit for the first time, will feel that they let Harlequins get away in their clash last Saturday.

They lost the rugby match 21-15 but things could have been so different had they been able to sort out their scrum in the first half hour.

It certainly didn’t help that they lost front row star Ben Oosthuizen late on Friday afternoon with a neck injury.

The only consolation was that they secured a bonus point for losing by less than seven points – and the fact that it was an away game.

Full credit must go to the Warriors for their fightback after Harlequins streaked ahead.

Tries for the Warriors were scored by scrum half Chris Mitchell and eighthman and captain Juan van den Berg.

Fullback Dylan Kroon converted the first try and also nailed a penalty.

Men of the match for the Warriors were Marcell Sass (backline) and Nicolaas Engelbrecht (overall).

At no stage did the Warriors lead in the match.

Harlequins ran in three tries within 30 minutes and it was only when the Warriors made some changes in the front row that the game started to change in their favour.

“I believe if our scrum had been better controlled early on we would have taken the game easily,” said coach Christo Henderson.

He felt the Warriors had controlled most aspects of the game – the line-outs, rucks and the back line – but that the failure of the scrum to fire had put them under enormous pressure in the first half, which ultimately cost them the game.

Coach Henderson, while impressed with the way the Warriors fought back to almost win the match, felt that, going forward, they needed to learn to adapt more quickly to how the match officials handled the game, as well as work out the opponent’s weakness and capitalise on that.

As a result, Harlequins remain top of the log, but the Warriors are still very much in contention as there is still a long way to go in the season.

“We are not going to let one loss get us down. The boys fought back well, especially after some wild calls in the first half,” said Henderson.

Their next fixture is also a tough one, against Richards Bay this Saturday, at 3.30pm. The second XV kicks off at 2pm.

The second team lost 38-15 to Harlequins. The first half was one to forget, with too many tackles being missed, but the Warriors regrouped and ran in three tries in the second half.

Try scorers were Brendan McGarr, Gift Vilane and Thomas E’Silva.

The Warriors third team recently took on Scottburgh in Scottburgh on a very wet day.

The Warriors played well, but missed a few tackles which proved costly.

Ball handling errors saw them spoil some scoring opportunities and Scottburgh won the game 20-0.

Considering it was Scottburgh’s first team and the first game of the season, it wasn’t a bad result.