Hot action light up the Port Rex festival

THE Buco Port Rex Technical High School Rugby Festival came to its conclusion on Monday night with two exciting games closing out the rugby action.

After Saturday’s first day of play, Monday night saw the final two games, with the main game seeing Port Rex overcome a stubborn challenge from Durban’s George Campbell School of Technology 33-17, while Adelaide Gymnasium beat Port Elizabeth’s Ithembelihle 22-12 in the other match.

“The final day went really well, and all the teams have had a good time during the festival. It’s something that can really grow to become something big in the future, which is very exciting,” Port Rex coach and festival organiser Daneal Steyn said.

“All the teams have already said they will be coming back next year, now it’s to find four to six more teams to make it bigger and better.

“Lots of lessons were learnt, so we can now take the next step.”

In Monday night’s first match, Ithembelihle took a slender 7-5 lead into the halftime break thanks to a try from Sinoxolo Mayinje and a conversion from Mphumzi Kete, while Adelaide responded with a try from Stiquin Prinsloo.

The second half, however, belonged to Adelaide as they stormed back with tries from Lisolokuhle Maroya, a second from Prinsloo and one from Mihlali Pantsi, with a conversion from Luigi Johannes, while Ithembelihle only managed a try through Qhama Joba to go down by 10 points in the end.

“Ithembelile versus Adelaide was a good match to watch – both teams ran the ball well. They both play a good game of running rugby,” said Steyn.

In the Port Rex match, it was a tight battle with the teams only separated by two points well into the second half before Port Rex pulled away on the closing stages.

Tries to Sonwabile Caga, Liyabongo Yapi and Anathi Diko, along with two conversions from Diko against a try from Dwaine Schutte and a conversion and penalty from Nathan Botha, gave Port Rex a 19-10 lead at halftime.

George Campbell then struck first in the second half through a try from Jed Labuschagne and a Botha conversion to make it a two-point match.

However, Damien Stokes dotted down for a try and Diko converted, before Diko scored his second try and converted it to take his personal tally to 18 points as Port Rex pulled away.

“Port Rex versus George Campbell was an exciting affair, both teams were hungry for victory on the last day,” Steyn claimed. “They went hard at each other, but in the end Port Rex won the game despite the score being 19-17 for long periods of the game.”

In the end, it was an enjoyable festival for all the teams that took part and Port Rex will now look to learn and build on the positives taken from the inaugural event for the future and make the event bigger and better as it progresses.

“The players and staff were very happy with the way things went and we can now build on this going forward,” said Steyn.

“Port Rex would like to once again thank Buco Hardware for their endless support and sponsorships towards our school.”