Bennies battle past Parktown
This past weekend saw a beautiful autumn day in Johannesburg and perfect conditions as St Benedict’s College snuck past Parktown Boys High 28-26.
St Benedict’s enjoyed a good win over St John’s College (22-18) and a comprehensive win against St. David’s (40-0) before departing to KZN for a week long rugby tour.
The tour saw a last minute loss to Northwood High School (11-15) and a thorough drubbing of the KZN Development side (77-0).
Parktown Boys High School hosted St Benedict’s College in a full fixture of both rugby and hockey. The day promised much with Parktown coming fresh off a win against DHS and the Bennies boys looking refreshed after a three week break. The only dampener on the day were the soft underfoot conditions and a stiff breeze.
Before kick-off a minutes silence was held for the untimely death of St Stithian’s pupil and ex-Bennies Prep pupil Phaks Ndlovu.
From the kick-off Parktown boys were forced to scramble hard as their clearing kick was charged down. They however stood firm and then found their rhythm with a long sequence of phases as they worked their way upfield. The Bennies defence was however marshalled well and dealt with the threat keeping the Parktownians scoreless.
The Bennies kicker Matthew Smit then got the scoreboard ticking with a penalty in the 12th minute to give the boys in white a 3-0 lead. Soon after St Benedict’s Captain and headboy Byrone Kennedy crossed for the first try of the game and Smit extended the lead to 10-0.
The bennies boys soon began to find their stride and began putting the Parktown boys under pressure with numerous line breaks.
The three week holiday began to show as the last pass went to ground, or support runners were trailing behind. In desperation the boys in white went for the miracle pass rather than just simple rugby and this meant that they let multiple scoring opportunities go to waste. Smit however had his kicking boots on and kicked a monster 55-metre penalty just before the break to give St. Benedict’s a 13-0 half time lead.
The coaches’ words at half-time must have been quite different as St Benedict’s seemed to just stop playing rugby and instead made mistake after mistake. Parktown on the other hand came out all guns blazing, ably lead by their pack and driving maul to score two quick tries to bring themselves right back within touch at 13-12.
This was all the boys in black and red needed to motivate them and they soon scored again to take the lead. St Benedict’s only response to this being a sole penalty, as Parktown lead 16-19. The Bennies boys then finally woke up realising that they were now chasing the game, and their response was a positive one.
Two quick tries restored the lead to 28-19 in favour of St. Benedict’s College.
Parktown however where not done and scored a converted try to close the gap to 28-26 with a few minutes left to play. This lead to a tense finish with the bennies boys managing to weather the storm and close out the game to win 28-26.
