Pumas thrill the crowds
The Pumas scored five unanswered tries in a thrilling second half performance to beat the Valke 37-10, scoring some spectacular tries on the way to a crushing victory on Day 3 of the 2009 Craven Week.
The first half was a hard-fought and entertaining affair, with both sides showing great attacking intent and defensive awareness. Neither side could get a firm grip on the game in a cut and thrust opening stanza.
The Valke scored first through a piece of individual brilliance from fullback Ulrich van Schalkwyk. The ball was shifted through the hands to the EG Jansen back, who beat one man and chipped over the last defender to dot down for the game’s opening try.
The boys in red doubled their lead almost immediately, starting from left wing Ryan Wells’ burst down the left hand touchline. Wells was pulled up short of the line, but quickly recycled ball was fed to flyhalf Michael Holtzhausen to crash over.
But the early 10-0 lead was soon reduced, as Pumas eighthman Bruce Zeelie produced a strong finish to score off the back of a lineout. As impressive as Zeelie’s score was, it was soon eclipsed by a wonderful counter-attacking try by the boys from Mpumulanga. A few deft passes, inside and out, put centre Clearance Khumalo into space. Khumalo found a flying Siso Maseko away to score the first of his three tries.
Fullback Ulrich Beyers added the extras to end the half 12-10 in favour of the Pumas.
It seemed as if the second half was destined to be a closely contested battle, but the Maseko-inspired Puma boys had other ideas. They began to show their ascendance straight from the restart, with great hands and offloads through the tackle the features of a superb team effort after the break. The pacey Abednego Mamushi found space down the wing and popped inside to rangy lock Christoff Gouws to extend the lead.
From that point, the Pumas began to turn it on. Maseko got the ball in space on the halfway line and went on a run. He stepped and outstripped a pair of defenders and cracked on the pace. He was hunted down on the touchline, but somehow managed to get a leg free and chip the ball infield. Khumalo was the first man there to score a truly brilliant try.
Flank Sandile Ngwenya – who was impressive throughout – was next on the score sheet. He finished off a well-executed maul as the Pumas showed that they could mix up their attack. Maseko grabbed his second with a free run to the corner to end the game as a contest. But if the crowd thought they had seen the best of Maseko, they were sorely mistaken.
He produced a spectacular individual effort to score the best of his three tries in the match. Quick hands once again put the Ermelo flyer into some space. He stepped and jinked his way past two and cut back to leave at least three other defenders in his wake, showing tremendous speed to finish. It was a wing’s try of unbelievable quality and capped off a wonderful outing for the youngster.
The Valke competed well in a tight first half, but in the end the brilliance of Maseko, Ngwenya, Mamushi and Beyers was too much for the Valke to handle.
It was a stunning display from the Pumas and a great advert for the Craven Week and South African schoolboy rugby.
Scorers:
For Valke:
Tries: van Schalkwyk, Holtzhausen
For Pumas:
Tries: Zeelie, Maseko 3, Gouws, Khumalo, Ngwenya
Con: Beyers
Squads:
Valke: 15 Ulrich van Schalkwyk (EG Jansen), 14 Otavio Fortuin (Hans Moore), 13 Morné Stassen (EG Jansen), 12 Oupa Potsane (General Smuts), 11 Ryan Wells (Kempton Park), 10 Michael Holtzhausen (EG Jansen), 9 Ryan Louwrens (Kempton Park), 8 Ruan Lerm (EG Jansen), 7 Weza Matomane (Transvalia), 6 Morne Erasmus (EG Jansen), 5 Armand Gouws (HTS Vereeniging), 4 Pieter Mathee (EG Jansen), 3 Dewald Nel (EG Jansen), 2 Michale Philipson (EG Jansen), 1 Johannes van Deventer (Transvalia), 16 Sinduso Petrus (Voortrekker), 17 Divan Botha (EG Jansen), 18 Stefan de Witt (Transvalia), 19 Clyde Uren (Volsksrust), 20 Wian Lamprecht (Kempton Park), 21 Thulani Dube (General Smuts), 22 Katlego More (Hans Moore)
Pumas: 15 Ulrich Beyers (Ermelo), 14 Siso Maseko (Ermelo), 13 Clearance Khumalo (Rob Ferreira), 12 Karl-Hein Schuld (Nelspuit), 11 Abednego Mamushi (Middelburg), 10 Divan Muller (Middelburg), 9 Emile Temperman (Nelspruit), 8 Bruce Zeelie (HTS Middelburg), 7 SandileNgwenya (Middelburg) 6 Henrik Haasbroek (Nelspruit), 5 Christoff Gouws(Nelspruit), 4 Frederik Ngoza (Volksrust) 3 Stiaan Barnard (HTS MIddelburg), 2 Mark Pretorius (Nelspruit), 1 Jacques Kotze (Nelspruit), 16 Hannes Struwig (HTS Middelburg) , 17 Nhlanhla Mhlanga (Generaal Hertzog), 18 Nico van Vuuren (Nelspruit), 19 Seprein Hlope (Generaal Hertzog), 20 Dillon Smit (HTS Middelburg), 21 Henson Ngozo (Middelburg), 22 Nyati Nkosinathi (Nelspruit)
Referee: Luke Burger
By Tim Human
