IT was a nail-biting affair when Hoërskool President took on Hoërskool Goudrif in front of a big crowd eager to see the first teams battle it out on the rugby field.
Pressies started off the better of the two and showed good intent in the opening few minutes.
They looked good with ball in hand, although they lost the ball a few times in the tackle. They were rewarded for their good play when they won a kickable penalty and the fly half, who was also captain, had no hesitation in taking the three points on offer.
The Goudies then started coming into their own and put President under pressure for an extended period and, although the defence of President held, they did give away two penalties that were put through the poles by the Goudrif fullback.
Goudrif then added a try near the sticks. The conversion somehow missed, but the lead was stretched to 11-3.
The warning signs for President were the number of missed tackles and also that Goudrif looked effective when they attacked.
But President refused to lie down and fought back with a super try, which was created by a very good back-line move. The move was finished off by Dean McGear and the lead was cut to 11-8.
Unfortunately, as good as their attacking was, their defence was a little less effective.
Pressies did score again through Kevin Alberts, but so did Goudrif and with only 10 minutes left the deficit looked out of reach at 32-22.
Pressies started hanging onto passes and made a crucial turnover or two. They scored a converted try through Lebogang Nkosi with probably four minutes left and at 32-29 it still looked like a tall order.
Suddenly, Goudies were hanging on for dear life and were shell shocked when Emanuel Pietersen scored under the sticks with the last move of the game.
The home crowd was left stunned while all the Pressie supporters were obviously in the highest of spirits.
The Pressies have now won their last two games and the coaches were impressed.
Article and photograph: Wayne Raath
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