Lions surprise Kwaggas
The Lions of Langenhoven Gymnasium in Oudtshoorn, came to George with probably very few people thinking they would trouble Outeniqua in 2012.
Trouble Outeniqua they did. In the ten or so years that I have been watching Southern Cape schools rugby I have noticed that this side always seems to give Outeniqua a really good run for their money. Looking at the scoreline, 39-6, you are probably thinking, “What has he been smoking?”.
But the score was a result of a last fifteen minutes or so in which Gimmies just crumbled. It was 10-6 at that stage and an enormous shock was in the offing. Stefaan 'Belelie' Grundlingh (replaced Henco du Preez in the front row at half-time) had just been yellow carded for a high tackle and Gimmies were defending for all they were worth, but, when Jurgens Schoeman went over, the damn wall broke with Outeniqua running in another four tries in quick succession.
The Outeniqua side had a new look to it through injury-enforced changes. Tinus Vermeulen (concussion), Warwick 'Boogey' Galant (knees), Leighton 'Soda' Eksteen (concussion) and Douw Schoeman (knee) were all unavailable. This resulted in Geor Malan replacing Vermeulen at eighthman and then a rejigging of the backline, with Marius Venter moving to 12, Wilhelm Esterhuizen coming in at 13 and Rynhardt van der Nest coming in at 15.
With the established tight five Outeniqua was always going to be too strong in the tight exchanges and they dominated the scrums and line-outs comfortably. Mention must be made of the line-out effort of Outeniqua that has improved markedly. Well done to Roche Steenkamp for the effort he must have put in as he found both Emile Cloete (2) and Schoeman (4) confidently all afternoon. This bodes well for SWD over the next few weekends and into Craven Week.
It was in the loose and tight loose that the Lions shone. Their loose trio of (according to the match programme) Jaco Bellingan (6), Wikus Oosthuizen (7) and Bester Olivier (8) overshadowed their opponents in both attack and defence. They hunted as a pack and all carried the ball extremely well and particular mention must be made of Olivier, who is also the Lions captain. He led from the front and is unfortunate to have missed out on selection to the higher level. The Outeniqua loosies clearly missed Vermeulen and I wonder if this is not a player that one can easily underestimate. As a captain and player his contribution to a side is enormous and I look forward to his return.
The halfback pairing of Outeniqua struggled a bit and possibly it was just a rhythm thing with Dewald 'Japie' Human being split form his usual partner Eksteen. Remu Malan at scrummie was adequate but was a little slow to distribute the ball at times and was caught with it on a number of occasions. Possibly the Lions were encroaching on the off-side line but they were doing it successfully and well done to them on making the afternoon tough for Malan.
Human however also had an afternoon he would probably rather forget, not his best effort, I thought. He is such a good player he will bounce back I'm sure.
And then there are the backlines. Again an area that Outeniqua had just too much fire-power and it tells with six of the seven tries being scored by the Outeniqua back three. One must hasten to add that with a few more passes there might have been three or four more. Draw the final defender and pass, guys! A number of tries were left on the table that would have sealed the win a lot earlier in the game.
The tactic of moving Human to fullback on defence was again employed, but with Van der Nest coming in at 15 it required a game of musical chairs that was quite impressive. On defence Duhan van der Merwe at 11 was the only player in the back line that didn't change position. 10 to 15, 15 to 14, 14 to 13, 13 to 12 and 12 to 10. Must have kept the opposition guessing. hehehe
Mention must be made of Van der Merwe who had one of the best games I have seen him play. Scored three tries and was solid on defence but he is such a good player he really doesn't need to get involved with all the theatrics with his opposite number. Just put your head down, play rugby and let the scoreboard do the talking.
Van der Nest at fullback was good. Defensively sound and on attack he is so deceptively quick. I do think, as I said last week, he's a player that needs to be on the field and the side is richer with him in it than out of it.
All in all, well done to Outeniqua and a plaudit to the Lions that gave the Kwaggas a real run for their money, but one final word must be made of an incident that in my mind is really a little unacceptable at schoolboy rugby.
One of the Lions coaches was unhappy with a tackle that was made by Jurgens Schoeman on the Lions hooker. It was late and a shoulder charge and he, the coach, got involved with berating the player and the officials to such an extent that he had to be restrained by his fellow coaches and players.
The touch judge had already got his flag out and the referee was dealing with the situation that resulted in a penalty and a yellow card. Was yellow justified? Would it have been shown without the coach's interference? I don't know, but this sort of behaviour is marring our rugby all over the country and I believe it needs to be firmly rooted out.
Well, it's next stop Craven Week and I do hope to be there for a few of the games so watch this space SWD supporters.
By Deon de Waal
