Toti 1sts trounce tough VC team 20-17
The club would like to see as many of the local community get down to Hutchison Park to support the first and second team on Friday night
THE first round of the top six premier division teams saw Ethekweni Refactories Amanzimtoti Rugby Club’s first team take on a Varsity College (VC) team which was loaded with talented KZNRU contracted and academy youngsters.
Being played away from home, this was to be a tough encounter.
The reasoning for VC playing a younger team was possibly to run the older Toti team off their feet, however the Toti boys had other ideas and won a nail-biter of a game, 20-17.
The VC team started like a house on fire and went to a 3-0 lead, but soon thereafter Toti replied with a penalty of their own by Wimpie Pretorius to make it three all. Another penalty from VC made it 6-3, but Toti soon made it six all with another successful penalty from Wimpie Pretoruis. It should be mentioned that up until this point, the Toti boys were putting in many tackles (some bone crunching) to cut down the younger opponents. The Toti boys then started to settle and through showing great patience in building phases, scored a great try in the corner by outside centre, Sheldon Higgo to lead 13-6 which was converted by Wimpie Pretorius. Just before half time a high tackle on a Toti player that went ‘unnoticed’ by the ref saw the VC students pick up the ball and score a try to make it 13-11 on the stroke of halftime. The linesman did raise his flag for the high tackle but was overruled by the ref.
The second half saw a patient build-up by Toti which allowed Sheldon Higgo to score his second try of the night, which was converted by Wimpie Pretorius to take the score to 20-11. VC kicked a further two penalties that left the final score at 20-17.
Man of the match awards went to Sheldon Higgo in the backline and forwards man of the match awards were shared by loose head prop Renier Mostert and tighthead prop Jason de Broize.
Third team
The third team cemented its second spot on the fourth division log on Thursday night when they took on a young Ogwini Bafana team at Hutchison Park and beat them 24-17.
A few of the ballies were second team losing to VC, the fourth team had a draw against Kwantu and the U20 team’s game was postponed by Newcastle.
This weekend, the first and second teams are up against their nemesis team, SA Home Loans Collegians on Friday, 23 June at Hutchison Park with kick-off at 7pm and 8.30pm respectively. The third team sees a top of the log clash with Crusaders at Hutchison Park on Saturday, 24 June with kick-off scheduled at 3.30pm. The fourth team is away to Durban Rhinos and the U20 team is away to Crusaders, also on Saturday.
The club thanks its sponsors and supporters who made the trips to support the teams over the weekend. The club wants to see as many of the local community get down to Hutchison Park to support the first and second team on Friday night, as they will be treated to a cracker of a match. The players really appreciate the support they receive from locals.
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