Bishops run again
On the A Field at De Kuilen on Saturday morning Bishops beat De Kuilen 52-7.
Another half-century points tally but not as convincing as it may look on the scoreboard. The looks on the players’ faces in the post-match huddle spoke volumes for how they felt about the collective performance against a very spirited and talented De Kuilen side, a side full of players with both grit and skill. Each player knows what he has to do in order to prevent Paarl Gym from punishing us in this coming Saturday’s game in Paarl!
The disappointing aspects of our performance were the hesitancy shown by some of the backs on attack, the numerous penalties conceded at the breakdown (more than twice the number vs SACS last week), mainly by forwards, the knock-ons and the consistently inaccurate running off the ball and passing.
Even though we were all feeling a bit deflated with this performance, we still did manage to put 50-plus points on the board for the third time this season, and this against a team that fought hard throughout, and whose commitment on both defence and attack actually had us on the ropes after drawing level at 7-7 (thanks to an intercept try from a telegraphed long pass), and who put us under tremendous pressure for fairly long spells in the second-half. Our defence on these occasions was largely outstanding, with one lapse in concentration leading to their final try, with the second having come after a pass meant for one of our backs cannoned off the chest of an interloping forward and into the waiting arms of one of their backs, who cantered in from about 30 metres out. Too many forwards in the backline disrupts our attacking platform and takes the momentum out of high-tempo attacks – back to the basics from now on!
Scorers:
For Bishops:
Tries: Keenan Jacobs 2, Cornel Smit, Luke Leach, Saud Abrahams, Mervano da Silva, Sam Mitchell, J-P Smith.
Cons: Cornel Smit 5, Jez MacIntyre
For De Kuilen:
Tries: Damian Dilgee 2, Lee Lewis
Con: Jade Hermanus
We wish all of our trialists (nine of them!) the best of luck in the final set of WP trials today and on Wednesday – Gerard, Cornel, Justin H, André, Jez, Saud, Mervano, Sam and J-P: we are all holding thumbs for you.
By Geoff Kieswetter (Bishops)
