BORDER ROARS TO BIG WIN AT CRAVEN WEEK
10-try blitz has Limpopo running ragged as local team enjoys perfect start
Captain stars with four out of 10 tries as Limpopo thrashed 68-17 in Paarl
A ruthless performance from the Border Craven Week team saw them get their national rugby week off to a cracking start with a 68-17 win over Limpopo in Paarl yesterday afternoon.
It was one-way traffic in both halves as Border crashed the whitewash 10 times in the match, six times in the second half to enjoy a 40-12 lead at the break, before adding four more in the second 35 to seal a thumping win first up.
Captain Sibabalwa Xamlashe dotted down four tries, while hooker Jacques Goosen was rewarded for a bollocking allround game with the player of the match award.
“Our big focus has been on the team and all the players know it all to well, so although there were some great individual performances, the guys know they wouldn’t be possible without the rest of the team,” said Border assistant coach Phiwe Nomlomo.
“So from that perspective we achieved our goals in this game and now we want the guys to kick on and hopefully be up for bigger honours if we do well over the rest of the week.”
It was an incredibly scrappy start to the match, with knock ons, turnovers, rips and intercepts from both teams, all in a breathtaking first two-and-ahalf minutes of play before the first setpiece.
It was then from their own 22m that Border opened the scoring as scrumhalf Thomas Bursey, who enjoyed an almost perfect day with the boot, slotting nine of his 10 conversion attempts, box kicked from the base of a ruck, which Border right wing Jarrod Ramsay chased, catching on the bounce just outside the 22m and sprinting away to score under the posts as Border took a 7-0 lead after just four minutes.
A crazy 10-minute blitz from Border, between the 14th and 24th minutes, saw them power into an unassailable lead.
First inside centre Mnombo Zwelendaba scored a threeminute double in either corner, the second being Bursey’s only miss of the game from the righthand corner.
Border left-wing Sakhekile Dingile then stepped past some flatfooted Limpopo defence to go over next to the uprights, before Border prop Nolan Kemp stretched over for their only forward try after coming off the back of an unsuccessful maul in the right-hand corner.
This had Border 33-0 up and in cruise control, before Limpopo finally got on the scoreboard with an unconverted try to scrumhalf Anthony Brand in the 30th minute.
Just before halftime Ramsay received the final pass and streaked away to score in the right-hand corner after Border picked up a loose ball on the halfway, while Limpopo had the final say of the half with a converted try.
It was a slow start to the second half as Limpopo scored their third try in the 43rd minute, and a couple of yellow cards to players on both sides made things a bit scrappy.
But the last 15 minutes belonged to fullback Xamlashe, who ran over four tries to show his stepping skills, strength and predatory finishing, while his fellow backline players must be commended for putting him into great positions to score.