Leading up to this weekend’s match versus Belhar we knew that it was going to be a tough encounter as they have only lost one game leading up to this match. Coming off from a bye from the previous weekend, the U20’s were well rested and keen to keep their winning momentum going.
Upon kickoff, the U20’s were awarded a penalty kick within the first minute of play. Fly half Wynand Maclachlan slotted the kick to put the first points on the board for the U20’s. Belhar struck right back after poor discipline by the U20’s at the breakdown which lead to their fly half who had a sharp shooter of a boot to slot Belhar’s first points. Poor discipline by us lead to Belhar being awarded numerous penalties which their fly half easily converted from all over the park, including from inside his own half. This meant the U20’s had to be careful from giving away penalties inside their own half. Half score was 6 – 15 to Belhar.
The U20’s struck right back in the second half through substitute scrumhalf Esjohnne Goliath who scored the first try. We managed to find some momentum and conjured up some amazing phases which led to 8 th man Matthew Boshoff scoring our second try. Belhar’s defense was up to it and managed to get numerous turnovers. The U20’s didn’t stick to their structure or remain calm while under enormous pressure from Belhar which led to poor decision making and inevitably cost us points. With minutes left to go in the match, the score stood at 24 – 21 to the U20’s. We knew that Belhar will come with everything they had and their persistence and determination was too much to handle and they managed to cross over the try line with seconds remaining to win 24 – 28.
Credit to Belhar who played right to the end and showed some great heart and determination to win the mactch. Special mention must go to Belhar’s fly half who didn’t miss a kick and managed to convert seven penalty kicks. The U20’s will bounce back from this loss and are now focused on the next match against Tygerberg on the weekend.
“That’s what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we’ve changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning.” – Richard Bach
TRIES – Esjohnne Goliath & Matthew Boshoff
CONVERSIONS – Wynand Maclachlan (1)
PENALTIES – Wynand Maclachlan (4)
By Matthew Marais