Quaggas clobber the Kuile
The pride of George, Outeniqua, scored eight tries on their way to a landslide 52-6 win over hosts De Kuilen out at Kuils River on Saturday, 17 March.
Both schools, indeed both sides, are much the same size, but, when it comes to rugby prowess, the Capetonians were found wanting in many aspects on the day.
It took the Quaggas just two minutes to get on the board when inside centre Warrick “Boogie” Gelant lived up to his nickname, sidestepping through the defence for an unconverted try. Then, just three minutes later, left wing Duhan van der Merwe was sent clear on the overlap to run in untouched from the half-way line. Gelant converted to make the score 12-0.
Playing with a stiff breeze at their backs, the visitors were further aided by a stream of penalties for persistent transgressions by the hosts’ pack, particularly in the rucks and mauls. One such infringement eight metres from the De Kuilen goal line allowed captain and No.8 Tinus Vermeulen to breach the defence midway through the half, shortly after which pivot Leighton Eksteen held off several would-be tacklers to stretch over in the right hand corner. Gelant’s impressive kicking took the score to 26-0.
With the water break fast approaching, flank Lian van Schalkwyk crossed the Kuile’s line from a five metre line-out, leaving Gelant the easy task of giving the George lads a 33-0 cushion at the change-over.
When reserve flyhalf Dewald Human dived over under the crossbar two minutes into the second period (40-0), things started looking pretty bleak for the locals, but they in turn exploited the tailwind quite efficiently and duly made it onto the board with two sweetly struck penalties by scrumhalf Wouter Whitmore (40-6).
With little fear of losing, Outeniqua justifiably gave the bench extensive game time and replacement centre Hennie Barnard took his chance when put clear by Gelant, whose conversion put the Quaggas 47-6 up, although tired legs on both sides meant only one more try was scored, by lock Jurgens Schoeman. Final score: 52-6.
As stated earlier, there was a marked difference in the intensity of the performances of the two sides. The Quaggas are fortunate to be blessed with an explosive loose trio. Two of them may have scored, but the star turn went unrewarded as flanker Dean van Vuuren tormented the home team for the whole seventy minutes.
Out in the midfield Gelant’s reputation is already growing by the day and rightly so. As slippery as a barrelful of eels, he reads the game perfectly and the sudden try drought in the second half owes much to his being consigned to fullback duty when the reserves entered the fray. However, he would be the first to acknowledge the sterling service provided by quicksilver scrumhalf Remu Malan and the two top-notch flyhalves mentioned above.
While one can’t fault De Kuilen’s courage in taking this now-annual tilt at the big boys – principal Herman Mellet observed optimistically that, after playing Outeniqua, his team had no reason to fear any of the schools in their local league – the resultant injury list, which included one lad being stretchered off after a late tackle that resulted in a yellow card, certainly raises questions about the timing of such a fixture.
By Tony Stoops
