Border women fall at death
WP snatch try after the full-time hooter
ACONVERTED try after the fulltime hooter sent the visiting Western Province women’s team into wild celebration as they snatched a comefrom-behind 17-15 upset win over the Border women’s team in the final of the Interprovincial A division competition at the BCM Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
It ended the Border team’s tremendous four-year reign in the tournament.
The visitors showed tremendous character and displayed a never-say-die attitude to hold off the hosts during the final 15 minutes.
During that period they were down to 13 women for seven minutes, before going back up the other end to score and kick the winning conversion to claim their first title since 2012.
“We are absolutely ecstatic, the game could have gone either way,” admitted Western Province High Performance coach Labeeb Leby.
“Last year Border beat us in the final convincingly and we then had a tight game in Cape Town earlier this year, so we knew that the final was going to be close and this time the girls managed to get the win.”
Border were their own worst enemy in the game, however. After weathering an early storm from Western Province they took charge by scoring the first points, before Province pulled level, with the teams heading into the break on level scores.
Province then took an early lead in the second half, before Border came storming back, and with it looking as if they had done enough to win the game – despite missing a slew of chances to put the game beyond doubt. But then the visitors punished them at the death.
“Border really came out firing in the first 25 minutes; they had opportunities to lock down the game but they never took them, and we just kept fighting and grinding, hoping that things would go our way,” said Leby.
“In women’s rugby players don’t usually play until the last whistle, and it has been a mindset that we have been encouraging and today they showed that hunger to fight until the very end, and got the win.”
The match began in cold and wet conditions, after rain had fallen throughout the day, which made for difficult conditions from the start.
It took Border 22 minutes to take the lead through an unconverted try by prop Asithandile Ntoyanto, with Western Province hitting back in the 29th minute with one of their own through Vuyolwethu Mqholo, which saw the sides head into the half-time break at 5-all.
The visitors then started the second half with a bang, attacking from the kick off. That rewarded them with an unconverted try by scrumhalf Felicia Jacobs, who took a quick tap and sniped over.
However, a try in the 56th minute by number eight Nwabisa Ngxatu, which was converted, and a successful penalty from flyhalf Siviwe Basweni four minutes later put Border up 15-10, and looking as if they had done enough to get the win.
But then the last second drama unfolded, with forward Charmaine Kayser dotting down for the converted winning score.
“I don’t think much went wrong today; the girls played very hard and I am very proud of them,” said Border coach Mxolisi Kolonza. “We had a rally good season and despite losing this game I believe we can come back from this, and definitely win the title next year.”
The B division final, which was played as the curtain raiser on the day, saw South Western Districts emerge as 23-8 winners over the Lions, to gain promotion to the A division for 2018