Kearsney beat St Ben's
The visitors stunned the home team with the first try scored in the first minute after their speedy centre collected a loose pass to score under the posts for an early lead of 7-nil.
From the ensuing kick-off, the visitors immediately broke the poor defence and worked their way upfield and masterfully toed the ball through the defensive line from a breakdown, to dive over for an unconverted try and 12-nil lead after four minutes of play.
Kearsney attacked for the next five minutes but a breakaway run found the visitors back in Kearsney territory and they benefited from a penalty to stretch the lead to 15-nil after 10 minutes of play.
To Kearsney’s credit they responded well to this early onslaught and dominated the next 25 minutes of the half. Their first try came from flank Taine Polzi after a quick tap penalty which Jacques Odendaal converted.
Captain Dylan Richardson scored the first of his tries from a rehearsed penalty move, again converted by Odendaal.
Next was Odendaal’s turn when he followed up on a punt through by flyhalf Taine Muirhead. Richardson scored again just before half-time after receiving a pass from scrum-half Ayron Kayser from close out which Odendaal converted.
Kearsney came out very strongly in the second half and totally dominated the rest of the match. Their offload game took shape and the management of the various scenarios improved immensely and, in the process, scored another five tries, of which three were goaled and conceding only one converted try. Flyhalf Muirhead, prop Matt Heard, wing Brendan Albertse and eighthman Richardson (x2) were responsible for these.
Captain Richardson was brilliant, displaying an array of skills, and his four tries were a well-deserved reward. Odendaal, Muirhead, Sibu Sangweni, Heard and Polzi also deserve mentioning.
By Sue Miles of Working Words
Photography: Tracey van den Aardweg
