Zimbabwe snatch a late win

Zimbabwe started the game like a house on fire.They collected the ball from kick-off and built some phases  with the first chance they got.

Eventually their efforts wererewarded with an early penalty.The Northern Cape side were penalised for not releasing the ball inside their own 22. Matthew McNab made no mistake to put the first points on the board inside two minutes.

For most of the opening minutes Griquas Country Districts' defence was tested as Zimbabwe kept them inside their own half.

For the first time on the 12th minute the Griquas Country Districts found themselves in the opposition's half. A great carry by Hermanus Fourie was rewarded with a penalty. Ivan Lombaard stepped up to level scores.

With both teams at three apiece, the teams started gradually to work on attack, but some scrappy handling by both sides fail to produce any points for either side.

On the 22nd minute Griquas took the lead through a penalty. From a scrum Griquas CD made a great run and forced a penalty just inside Zimbabwe 22. Ivan Lombaard  again stepped up and slotted an easy kick, 6-3.

Just after taking the lead, Griquas CD backline produced some beautiful interplay and looked dangerous. Despite Griquas Country Districts really ending the first half strongly. Their handling errors made it really difficult to penetrate Zimbabwe's defence.

At the stroke of halftime Zimbabwe failed to kick the ball out and opted to kick it down field, a decision they deeply regretted because it resulted in another penalty to Griquas Country Districts, Ivan Lombaard again making no mistake as he slotted over his third successive kick. Griquas Country Districts took a lead of 9-3 to the break.

In the opening minutes of the second half , Zimbabwe came out rejuvenated and similar to the first half found themselves for most of the opening minutes inside the Griquas Country Districts' half.

In the 53th minute Zimbabwe looked really dangerous on the attack. From the line-out they produced a driving maul that made some metres. They got rewarded with a penalty, a quick tap-and-go by Connor MacMillan as he slipped one tackle and went over for a potential try. Unfortunatelyfor him  it was ruled no try. But his efforts were rewarded with penalty and Ben Meredith narrowed Griquas Country Districts lead to just three points.

Minutes later Zimbabwe gave away a penalty, and Ivan Lombaard had his first miss of the match as he hit the upright. The score remained 9-6.

Just short of the houre, Griquas Country Districts gave away another penalty, this time in front of the poles and Ben Meredith stepped up and levelled the score at 9-9.

With just under five minutes to play Zimbabwe were looking more likely to score with some great line-breaks. Fullback Martin Mangongo beating several defenders but much as before handling errors kept creeping in.

As the clock was ticking down, Griquas Country Districts won another penalty at the breakdown. They opted to kick to touch and regained possession from the line-out inside Zimbabwe half.

However, Zimbabwe absorbed the pressure and with one minute to  go Martin Mangongo made one of his breaks and gave a pass to McNab who sent it to  Peter Davis.

Davis beat two defenders to put the final nail in the coffin with the only try of the match. Ben Meredith added the extras to their tally and the final score 16-9 to Zimbabwe.  

Man of the Match: Hermanus Fourie made some good bashing runs and the Zimbabwe struggled with the big man's strength and flyhalf Ivan Lombaard scored all his team's first-half points. However, our nod goes to the winning flyhalf Benjamin Meredith. Even though his first half was not great, it is in the second half that he really upped his game and kept his team in the match with his boot.

The scorers:

For Griquas CD:

Pens:Ivan Lombaard 3

For Zimbabwe:

Try: Peter Davis

Con: Benjamin Meredith

Pens: Matthew McNab, Benjamin Meredith 2

Teams:

Griquas Country District: Mpho Molaolwa, Sabastian Jobb, Jacques Page, Devan Walters, Oscar van Wyk , Ivan Lombaard, Etiene le Roux, Johan Geldenhuys, Johannes Terblanche, Ruan Visser, Rudolph Oberholzer ,  Jovan Oosthuizen, Gerhard Gregory, Telehessien Dick, Zian Augustyn, Waylin Cloete, Wilfred Saunderson ,  Hermanus Fourie, Hanlu Kotze, Warren Ventura,  Connie de Jager, Delron Speelman,  Byron Coetzee.

Zimbabwe: Martin Mangongo, Rangarirai Mariwa, Rodney Sachiti, Matthew McNab, Tapiwa Marimira, Benjamin Meredith,  Connor MacMillan, Tendekai Chigwendere, Tichaona Hwangwa , Stuart Dodington , Daniel Hutchings ,  Tonderai Chiwambutsa , Cleopas Kundiona ,  Tinashe Chaza ,Samuel Garnett, Marcus Nichole ,  Simbarashe Maringira ,  Desmond Annandale , Travis Landing ,  Godfrey Magaramombe ,  Jeremy Munyeza ,  Nqobisile Ncube, Peter Davis .

Referee: Ruhan Meiring

Assistant referees: Mpho Matsaung, Jaco Pretorius

Television match official: Joey Klaaste-Salmans