Bishops just miss out

Bishops played Wynberg on the Piley Rees field at Bishops on Saturday and lost just 20-19 to their opponents who have been having a successful season.

Four mistakes and the loss of one’s pack leader in the opening five minutes of what was always going to be hard-fought battle set us back badly, and 35 minutes later we trooped off somewhat shell-shocked by the physical and verbal onslaught of the first half. The verbal onslaught continued by way of André Jacobs’s half-time team talk, the essence of which was: “You have played exceptionally poorly for 35 minutes; you have let yourselves down; you have another 35 minutes to man-up and rectify things”.

Man-up we certainly did and we came so close to rectifying things 100%. I know that “a miss is as good as a mile” in many areas of life, but it is not quite accurate in this case: by playing the kind of rugby that we did for the vast majority of the second half, we showed emphatically that we were the better rugby-playing team, and had it not been for those excruciatingly painful unforced knock-ons close to the try-line, we may well have walked away much happier. Sadly, history will record that we lost by one point.

In the third minute, following some ferocious tackling, rucking and driving by Wynberg, we were penalised in front of the poles and the fullback slotted three easy points. Nine minutes later, we lost a scrum against the head on our 22 and Wynberg spread the ball and went over for an unconverted try in the left-hand corner (0-8). Six minutes later we were penalised again: line-out, maul, unconverted try (0-13).

Wynberg harried us so when we did get some possession that invariably we lost it before any kind of momentum could be maintained. An error-strewn and weak performance was epitomised by the late try that we conceded two minutes before the break. Wynberg won a line-out just outside our 22, set up a maul and drove a couple of metres, and then, out of the middle of the maul burst their hooker, who ran in a try near the right-hand corner with hardly a hand being laid on him. Crucially for the result, the Wynberg full-back slotted this kick to add the vital two extra points (0-20). This was also the last points that they were to score in the game.

Having been severely chastised at half-time, we came out for the second half in a far better frame of mind than the one with which we had ended the first half, and it was soon clear that Wynberg would have to defend really well to prevent us from scoring. Our first score of the game came five minutes into the second half, and coincided with the winning of our first line-out – till this point, we had lost all of several! After choosing the line-out as a penalty option, we secured possession, mauled and drove the ball some 20 metres upfield with flank Nic Bester firmly in possession, and he completed the move by crashing to the ground over the try-line for an unconverted try (5-20).

It took us another 15 minutes to break Wynberg’s fierce resistance. After a quick tap-penalty on the right, the ball was moved swiftly to the left and captain Gerard Pieterse joined the line at precisely the right moment and then jinked his way through to score to the left of the poles and 15 metres out. André Manuel slotted the tricky conversion – and now the game was really on!

Sadly, as a result of us running Wynberg ragged, they resorted to slowing the game down at virtually every breakdown from then on, and it remains a mystery why the referee allowed this to happen, and also why he did not add on any time at the end of the 35 minutes. He is entitled to do so if the stoppages exceed 5 minutes in total, and these stoppages amounted to at least 10 minutes. Every scrum had to be reset because either the Wynberg props weren't comfortable or the (near perfect) playing surface was not stable enough. At one stage the referee commented that “the Bishops scrum is fine, but the Wynberg scrum has problems”… Be that as it may, we scored the try of the game in what turned out to be the final move of the game – a long-range counter-attack saw the linking André Manuel embark on a bewildering run that saw him cut inside and outside of five flailing attempts to tackle him, burst through the last line of defence and score under the posts. His hastily-taken drop-goal to convert the try was to no avail – the referee blew his whistle for the final time as the ball sailed between the poles.

In summary, we always knew that the selection of six of our boys to the WP Craven Week team and two to the WP Academy team would motivate Wynberg even more for this game, but we weren't prepared for the first-half onslaught, handled that poorly and paid the price in terms of the result. We lost. However, the second-half performance showed everybody present just why eight of this present side have been awarded provincial colours, and continued to send out the message that this team is a force with which to be reckoned.

So, quo vadis Bishops Rugby? Prorsum et sursum!*

By Geoff Kieswetter, Bishops

Scorers:

For Wynberg:

Tries: Bevan Barnard 2, Grant Turner

Con: Karl Martin

Pen: Karl Martin

For Bishops:

Tries: Gerard Pieterse, André Manuel, Nic Bester

Cons: André Manuel 2