Big win for WP Schools

In a warm-up match for Craven Week, Western Province Schools beat the visiting Namibia Schools 69-19 at Newlands in a curtain-raiser to the Super Rugby match between the Stormers and the Lions.

Namibia started off well enough and then had a good patch in the second half but by and large were no match for Western Province who enjoyed the brilliant hands and feet of their exceptional flyhalf Handré Pollard.

Pollard was a star in the SA Under-20 team when they won the final of the 2012 IRB Junior World Championship. He was much more so when he reverted to Under-18 and showed his full array of skills. His passing, long and short, was perfect. He broke with telling speed and strength and his kicking was long out of hand and accurate at posts. It is no wonder that provinces are in competition for his signature on their contract.

Apart from Pollard, the Namibians had difficulty with the speed of the back three – Jason Worrall, Dalen Goliath and Grant Hermanus – and the strength of the tight five. The latter was true in the tight loose but in scrums they were penalised four times.

From the first kick-off on the chilly, still afternoon, Namibia attacked. From a scrum they switched directions and flank DG Wiese broke and eventually scored. Flyhalf Chris Aries converted. 7-0 after 3 minutes.

After this Namibia more and more took a backseat.

After a rapid run by Dalen Goliath down the right Western Province went left where Ramone Samuels charged at the line. Namibia were penalised and Samuels scored. 7-7 after 9 minutes.

Pollard had an astonishing break before being tackled by Ethan Beukes. A penalty gave Western Province a five-metre line-out which they mauled and turned into a simple try for Rikus Bothma. 12-7 to WP.

Western Province won a Namibian line-out, Johan David Schickerling charge and with a surprising turn of speed big Liam Hendricks burst over. Pollard converted. 19-7 after 23 minutes.

After turnover following a Namibian line-out Chad Solomon spun over and scored. 26-7 after 33 minutes. From the kick-off Western Province attacked again and really should have scored but after a long run Wesley Cupido ignored four men on his outside and took the tackle. After a darting run by Pieter Schoonraad, Pollard dummied and burst over. 31-7 – the half-time score.

Changes came thick and fast in the second half, both teams using rolling changes which turned the match into a trial rather than a contest. In truth the contest was well over by half-time.

Western Province won the kick-off and Keagon Gordon raced over for a try. 38-7.

Western Province were winning the turnovers and were using the maul to telling effect but it was a tighthead which gave them their next try, scored by Michal Hazner. 43-7.

Bothma's second try was astonishing. Play was spluttering along in desultory fashion when suddenly he burst away from a tackle/ruck and raced an empty diagonal to the posts for the try. 50-7 after 51 minutes.

Then tall, sinewy outside centre breathed life into his ailing side. He race some 60 metres on a diagonal from inside his own half and was stopped just short of WP's right-hand side corner. There they were awarded a five-metre scrum and bashed till Visser, who started it all, burst over. 50-14.

This clearly lifted Namibian morale and they attacked against. The most delicate of grubber kicks into ingoal, produced a try for right wing Leon Feris. 50-19 with 10 minutes to play.

In those 10 minutes Western Province scored three tries – the first by speedy Grant Hermanus on the wing, the second a dart by SP Ferreira around the blindside of a scrum and the last Jason Worrall. The last was right in the right corner but Pollard converted.

Namibia play Boland Schools in Ceres on Wednesday.

Scorers:

For Western Province:

Tries: Ramone Samuels, Rikus Bothma 2, Liam Hendricks, Chad Solomon, Handré Pollard, Keagon Gordon, Michal Hazner, Grant Hermanus, SP Ferreira, Jason Worrall

Cons: Pollard 7

For Namibia:

Tries: DG Wiese, Divan Visser, Leon Feris

Con: Daniel Aries, Ethan Beukes

Teams:

Western Province: 15 Jason Worrall, 14 Dalen Goliath, 13 Michal Hazner, 12 Wesley Cupido, 11 Grant Hermanus, 10 Handré Pollard (captain), 9 Pieter Schoonraad, 8 Rikus Bothma, 7 Jacques Vermeulen, 6 Ramone Samuels, 5 John David Schickerling, 4 Sebastian Ferreira, 3 Liam Hendricks, 2 Chad Solomon, 1 Morné Nortjé.

Replacements: 16 Craig Corbett, 17 Wesley Adonis, 18 Burger van Niekerk, 19 Corné Cooper, 20 SP Ferreira, 21 Dennis Cox, 22 Keagon Gordon.

Coaches: Theuns van Schoor, Saaid Blake

Namibia: 15 Ethan Beukes, 14 Leon Feris, 13 Divan Visser, 12 Daniel Aries (captain), 11 Shirive Titus, 10 Chris Aries, 9 Hendrik Barkhuizen, 8 Wian Conradie, 7 Immo Dresselhaus, 6 DG Wiese, 5 JP Grobler, 4 Janco Venter, 3 GD Orlam, 2 François Robertse, 1 Quinton Esterhuizen.

Replacements: 16 Desmond Stramis, 17 Johan Retief, 18 Dyllan Husselmann, 19 Charlie Fourie, 20 JC Winckler, 21 Justin Newman, 22 Handré Bezuidenhout.

Coaches: Vince Dreyer, Henry Kemp

Referee: Jason Jaftha

Assistant referees: Marc van Zyl, Cwengile Jadezweni