Landbou leave it late
After leading by a tenuous 17-16 margin at the break, Boland Landbou surged into top gear in the latter stages of their home match against SACS to run out 43-21 winners.
As if playing in bright sunshine on the immaculate Paardeberg turf wasn’t enough of a privilege, the teams found themselves under the expert eye of master whistleblaster Jonathan Kaplan. His brilliant application of the advantage laws ensured that the game flowed beautifully, with less than a dozen scrums, the first only coming after 21 minutes!
The first six minutes saw three penalties slotted; two by the visitors’ flyhalf Chris Smith and one by his Landbou counterpart Heinrich Bühr, as the sides felt each other out.
In the eleventh minute Landbou ran in the first of their five tries, capitalising on poor ball retention by SACS. The Young Ikeys ceded possession after winning a line-out, the ball was shifted quickly out to the left and wing JC van Reenen pinned his ears back to dot down mid-way out. Bühr’s conversion put the hosts ahead 10-6, a lead which shrank to one point when Smith landed his third penalty after 25 minutes (10-9).
The SACS forwards were gradually taking advantage of a Boland eight who were dearly missing Hannes Loubser and Johan de Villiers and a powerful drive followed by a timeous release of the ball gave Smith the narrowest of gaps to snipe through under the crossbar. His conversion put SACS ahead 16-10 with four minutes of the first period remaining.
Just when it seemed they would be trailing at the change-over, Boland seized on a fatal moment of indecision in the SACS defence, whose failure to deal with a speculative kick ahead gave Bühr too good a chance to miss as he nipped in behind the posts for what he gratefully turned into a seven-pointer. Half-time: Boland Landbou 17 SACS 16.
The Landbou pivot bagged a further three points when SACS were penalized from the second-half kick-off (20-16), this seeming to swell the hosts’ confidence as their backline started to play truly breathtaking rugby.
Captain Faffa Botha was reveling in a return to his favourite No.15 berth and it was his break, aided by further hesitancy at the back by the visitors that led to van Reenen poaching his second touchdown of the game. Another Bühr penalty stretched the score to 28-16 with 16 minutes to go.
An outstanding performance by SACS captain and scrumhalf Cameron Calder finally paid dividends when quick thinking by the pocket dynamo saw loosehead Andrew Edwards over in the corner (28-21).
With outside centre Keagon Gordon continually hassling the defence via well-placed kicks, the time had come for inside centre Daniël Minnaar to play his part in the festivities. This he duly did with telling effect, making two scintillating line-breaks both of which ended in Botha scoring thrilling tries after sublime interpassing. Bühr converted the first and, with the tight forwards out on their feet, mercifully ended the game a few minutes later with his fourth penalty (43-21).
How much it meant to the Farmers to return to home soil after seven long weeks was evident in their response to the rapturous welcome and massive support their delighted followers gave them. While everything was fine going forward, causes for concern must include the midfield defence and iffy ball-retention and discipline up front. Were it not for the tireless efforts of brilliant hooker Arno van Wyk, things might have been very different by the break.
SACS looked as if they’d been whacked on the head at the end, but, such is their character and the way all fifteen play for each other throughout, they have very little to be ashamed about. Mistakes can cost matches and, while the glaring ones thankfully didn’t come at watershed moments in the match, the Newlands lads were made to rue them bitterly nonetheless. However, this side will remain highly competitive for a long time to come.
Next week Rondebosch hit the Farm. Let this result serve as a warning: the Farm has a nasty habit of hitting back!
By Tony Stoops
