Second half surge sees Warriors home
The win was testament to their mental toughness.
THERE was some tension in the game, that’s for sure, but after some heated moments, the Fidelity Security South Coast Warriors managed to regain their cool and outplay a super-motivated Westville Old Boys team at Douglas Mitchell Sports Ground last Saturday.
Who want want to be a rugby referee?
On one end of the pitch, Westville supporters suggested the ref was ‘watching a different game’ when he missed what they felt was a very late tackle.
But 40 paces away, on the Warriors side, one fan chirped: “Hey, the ref does have another arm!” when the Warriors won what they felt was a long overdue penalty.
In the end, it was an exciting, entertaining game of rugby, hard-fought and intense.
The Warriors won 40-23, but during the first half it looked as if Westville, unbeaten so far this season, would dominate when they took the lead.
Coach Christo Henderson spent more time time pacing up and down the sideline than he would have liked.
“It was a good comeback, the boys kept their cool,” he said.
“It’s never nice for any coach to go into half-time behind. However, I knew we were playing against the wind and just had to absorb the early pressure. Our team fitness is on a different level to the other clubs in our league so I knew that would be a factor later on,” he said.
When the Warriors stuck to the basics, keeping to their structures, things began to change. Once they broke through and scored, the floodgates opened.
“We allowed Westville to slow down our ball and they got away with it for most of the first half. We adjusted our approach a little bit and we started to get clean ball. They couldn’t close all the gaps and we took the opportunities,” said Henderson.
Flank Renaldo Brieley’s work rate was exceptional, and wing Marcell Sass had a huge impact at the back.
Tries were scored by Chris Mitchell, Theo Nicholls, Marcell Sass, Tienie Viljoen, Renaldo Brieley and Juandré Koekemoer. Eben Botha landed five conversions.
“It was a great team effort and the guys showed their character under pressure,” said Henderson.
The only negative was an injury to fly-half Jaques Petzer-Moore. “He went off the field with a big bump on his head. We are awaiting clearance from the doctor for this week,” said Henderson.
Team that played last Saturday: 1 Jaco Coetzee, 2 Juandré Koekemoer, 3 Ben Oosthuizen, 4 Jade Nyman, 5 Gormingo Mzunga, 6 Renaldo Brieley, 7 Jeandré Coetzee, 8 Juan van der Berg (c), 9 Chris Mitchell (vice-captain), 10 Jaques Petzer-Moore, 11 Ross Steyn, 12 Tienie Viljoen, 13 Theo Nicholls, 14 Marcell Sass, 15 Eben Botha. Bench – 16 Lourens Stapelberg, 17 Jaques Coetzee, 18 Pieter Smith, 19 Karel van Rooyen, 20 Dylan Kroon, 21 Van Edwards, 22 Subisiso Kunene.
The next game is a top-of-the-table clash against Jaguars at Amanzimtoti Rugby Club this Saturday at 12.30pm.
This forms part of the Fidelity Club Rugby Day 2015.
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