Border teams in mixed results
THERE was a mixture of elation and despair for the for the Border Academy and Craven week teams as they ended their respective national rugby weeks on high and low notes on the final day at St Stithians College in Johannesburg on Saturday.
The Border Academy team bowed out with a hard fought 34-27 win over the Griffons to end their campaign with two wins out of three, while the Craven Week side were edged in a high scoring game 45-40 by the Blue Bulls to end with three losses over the week.
The Academy team will be happy with their efforts which only saw them lose to festival hosts the Lions in their second match, while victories over the Leopards and Griffons meant they could end off with a positive win ratio.
“We are very pleased with how the week went,” said Border Academy assistant coach James Winstanley.
“Although we lost to the Lions in our second game we watched the tape afterwards and realised that we had put in a really good performance in that game despite the loss, so we had no complaints.”
“To produce three times in a row was a really good effort from the boys and we are proud of them.”
In the final match Border lock Simbongile Kampi was the star of the show as he ran in an impressive hattrick of tries while fullback Sibalomzi Mqeni’s solid goal- kicking kept the points ticking over as Border claimed a good win over the Griffons.
They held a slender twopoint lead at the half-time break, going in 12-10 up after wing Bulelani Ngaki opened the scoring for Border, with Mqeni adding the extras and Kampi crashing over for his first try of the match.
In the second half prop Uzoxolo Mehlo added his name to the scoring sheet with an unconverted try, followed by Kampi going over for his second and third tries, both converted, with Mqeni then adding a penalty to give the team some breathing room, as they held out for a solid win.
Both teams scored five tries in an evenly matched encounter, but it was Border who made the most of their opportunities in the end.
“We had a good start to the match but then found ourselves down and chasing the game a bit, but just before and after half-time we got a few key scores that put us back in front and we then sealed the win from there,” explained Winstanley.
For the Craven Week side, Border will be bitterly disappointed with their campaign after they couldn’t manage a win.
After starting their opening match against the Lions with a bang and only trailing 13-8 at half-time of that match they then fell apart in the second half to go down 44-8 in the end.
Their second match against the Limpopo Blue Bulls was then a defensive nightmare as they crashed to a 59-41 defeat and their final match against the Bulls wasn’t much better.
Both Border and the Bulls went into the game without a win, so both were desperate to finish off with a victory and in the end it was the Bulls who pipped it thanks to a hat-trickof tries to their centre Marnus Potgieter, a brace to their fullback Diego Appollis and five conversions to their flyhalf Ulrich Maritz, as they outscored Border seven tries to six in the end.