‘High five’ for Usher Cup heroes as Warriors make history
It may have been a long day with a lot of rugby but it was worthwhile in the end.
Riversmead Warriors created some history at the Usher Cup in Kokstad last weekend.
Even without some of their senior players, they managed to successfully win the trophy and in doing so become the first club to win it fives times in a row.
The tournament has been played since 1928 so this is no mean feat.
In Round 1 the Warriors beat Matatiele 26-5, followed by Kapaailand 26-12 in Round 2.
They were imperious in the semi-finals, beating Ixopo 42-5 and then finishing off the hosts Kokstad in the final 24-5.
There was no official player of the tournament but the Warriors decided it would have been forward Chris Sharpe had there been one.
He was outstanding throughout the day, working hard in the scrums and lineouts and brilliant the ruck cleans and ball carries.
In the backline, Devan van Eden made other centres on the day look like amateurs.
He was deadly on defence and broke the line several times to set up his own tries as well as the team tries.
His teammates are looking forward to see how far he can go this season as he appears to be a very talented player with a bright future.
Matatiele won the plate final and were named the team that played the most attractive rugby.
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Fiery flank and captain Chris Mitchell was unable to make the trip so Donovan Horne was captain on the day and he did a good job.
“The team pulled together on the day and just got better and better as the day went on. We produced our best for the last two games, gelling nicely when it really counted,” he said.
There were a lot of positives to be taken out of the trip, especially the emergence of some youngsters who showed they are ready to take it to the next level.
Squad for the day, from 1 to 15:
1 Tian Malherbe, 2 Msizi Mzindle, 3 Lourens Stapelberg, 4 Chris Sharpe, 5 Lunga Madlala, 6 Vian Potgieter, 7 Donovan Horne (c), 8 Juan van den Berg
9 Brandt Fields, 10 Marchell Sass, 11 Ty Thompson, 12 Devan van Eeden, 13 Sylvester le Roux, 14 Xander Lourens, 15 Arnold Kruger.
Bench: Jaques Coetzee, Pieter Smith, Emanuel van Wyhe, Dawie Durrheim and Marcus Botha.
The first team plays PMB Collegians away this Saturday (14th) at 3.30pm, with the reserves playing the same opponents at 2pm.
The third team start their Southern KZN league campaign against Ixopo away this Saturday (14th).
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