Hangklip shock Queen's

Match report

The Hangklip 1st XV pulled off a surprise victory over an out-of-sorts Queen’s team, in a bruising encounter played on the Rec on Thursday afternoon.

From the very first phase of the game, the beefy Hangklip forwards made their intentions clear, namely to dominate and control the set phases. This was also made possible to some extent by the departure, through injury, of the Queen’s hooker Lisle Clark, very early in the game.

Hangklip opted to play the ten man game, with their burly flyhalf Willem Prinsloo bringing the ball back to his forwards, who recycled the ball through efficient rucking and mauling. Queen’s, playing into a howling wind in the first half, chose to play a more expansive game, but with little ball battled to find their rhythm and momentum. Aggressive first time tackling by the Hangklip defenders also negated the effectiveness of the Queen’s backline, who also made far too many handling errors and kicked away too much good ball. During the first half Queen’s were also guilty of losing their ball in the contact situation thereby conceding numerous turnovers to Hangklip.

Hangklip were first to put points on the board through a penalty in the 4th minute by fullback Ivan Thompson followed by a try in the 15th minute by eighthman Heinrich Griebenouw, who powered his way over the try-line from a five-metre scrum close to the poles. The half-time score 10-0 to Hangklip.

During the early exchanges in the second half, the Hangklip team continued to play with confidence and it became evident that Queen’s would need to dig deep and score quickly if they were to salvage the game. This was partly achieved in the 10th minute when the Queen’s fullback Kholo Ramashala showed a fine turn of pace to round two opposition players and score in the right hand corner, for Lionel Cronjé to convert to add the extra two points. This certainly ignited the Queenians, who lifted their game with some good linking between backs and forwards. They were quick to score their second try just five minutes later when good interplay between the Queen’s eighthman and scrumhalf, resulted in a try to eighthman Mzothando Simani. During this half, the Hangklip side spent very little time in the Queen’s half of the field and it appeared as though Queen’s had “pulled this one out of the fire”, but the referee had the final say and a penalty to Hangklip in the final stages of the game, saw the visitors regain the lead, and go on to win the game 13-12.

Queen’s will need to regroup as they prepare for their two remaining fixtures, namely Cambridge on the Rec on Saturday 13 August, and Dale College in King William’s Town on 20 August. They have had a very good season to date and there is no reason why they cannot regain the form that has kept them in the FNB Top 20 throughout the season.

Scorers:

For Hangklip:
Try: Heinrich Griebenouw
Con: Ivan Thompson
Pens: Ivan Thompson 2

For Queen's:
Tries: Kholo Ramashala, Mzothando Simani
Con: Lionel Cronjé

By Mike Boy