Gardens just manage to keep unbeaten record
GARDENS maintained their unbeaten streak in the EP Rugby Union Grand Challenge Cup with an impressive 24-20 victory over traditional rivals Harlequins at the Derrick Ferreira Stadium on Saturday.
The visitors came into the game guns blazing and stunned the home crowd with a quick try in the opening minutes of the game.
But Harlequins were later dealt a blow when two of their forwards were sin binned for ill-discipline in the breakdowns as well as continuous late tackles.
Gardens did not hesitate to capitalise and scored as a result of the gaping hole left by Saville Arends and Clevido October.
Harlequins flyhalf Liam Bosman replied with a beautiful try from a pick up and drive set piece to level matters.
Gardens then found themselves defending for most of the half and later incurred a penalty.
Bosman made sure to stretch the lead and take the game away from the home side.
Harlequins regrouped after the return of the yellow-carded players and produced rock-solid scrums and fine counter-rucking.
This allowed flank Ricky Williams to add to Harlequins’ total and they ended the first half with a 15-5 lead.
The introduction of substitute centre Virgil Russell brought more rhythm and pace to the Gardens backline.
The speedy centre was, however, denied a try in the opening minutes of the second half when teammate Quinton Gawie failed to deliver the pass that would guarantee them a try.
Cheers from the packed Uitenhage crowd helped Gardens skipper Darling Gans keep the team’s spirit up and his efforts were later rewarded with two back-to-back tries from wing Kerwin Ceasar which saw them take the lead with just 10 minutes left on the clock.
That took the Uitenhage team’s unbeaten run to 10 out of 10 games in the competition.
Available results:
Gardens 24 Harlequins 20 Park 27 Despatch 22 Kruisfontein 29 Progress 35 NMMU 34 Stars of Hope 32