Rampant Grey hammer Selborne

SHRUGGING off successive defeats against Selborne, Grey High ran in nine tries to trounce their arch-East London rivals 57-22 in their final schools rugby fixture of the season on the Philip field in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.

Flyhalf Waqar Solaan was one of the stars of the day, crossing for three tries as the hard-running home team constantly put the Selborne defence under pressure.

Unfortunately for the visitors, they just fell off too many tackles to stand a chance in this match after conceding three tries to trail 19-0 at half-time.

Selborne were excellent at the breakdown, often turning over the ball and they showed some good enterprise to score four tries in the second half.

However, Grey proved even more devastating on attack and incisive running by players such as Solaan and centres Aya Matroos and Kholiwe Konza always had Selborne on the back foot.

Konza was the provider of two intercept tries as the Grey defensive line pressured their opponents and this allowed the home outfit to build a 26-0 lead before Selborne got their first points on the board.

These came from a brilliant solo run by flyhalf David Coetzer, who outwitted the Grey defence in a 45-metre dash for the line.

However, any chances they may have had of mounting a comeback were quickly dashed when Solaan crossed for two tries in the space of two minutes, stretching their lead to 38-7 and leaving Selborne to play catch-up for the rest of the game.

Each time the visitors managed to score, Grey would hit back with a try of their own, one of the best being a run from near the halfway line when wing Joshua Oosthuysen pounced on a grubber to outpace the Selborne defenders.

Grey’s tries came from Solaan (3), Konza (2), Corne Slabbert, Matroos, Oosthuysen and Dumisa Ngcivana, of which six were converted.

Selborne scored through Coetzer, Miles Norton (2) and Thomas Bursey, with Jason Raubenheimer adding a conversion. — DDC