Queen’s beat Selborne
In what was a tense and closely fought encounter, on a warm windy Saturday afternoon, Queen’s beat their traditional rivals Selborne by 14 points to 13.
The Queen’s team made their intentions clear from the start and were the first team to register points when, in the second minute of play, wing Sinkhole Ngozi, outpaced the cover defence to score a great try. Simon Bolze missed the conversion to leave the score at 5-0 to Queen’s.
Lungelo Gosa, the Selborne captain and fly-half, showed some very good footwork to set up some good play, but they were not able to convert the pressure into points. Simon Bolze missed a penalty attempt in the 20th minute of play. Five minutes later Lungelo Gosa converted a penalty after some fine work by the Selborne forwards to take the score to 5-3 in the favour of Queen’s. Simon Bolze was on target two minutes later with a penalty kick to make the score 8-3. Gosa then added a penalty to the Selborne score to make it 8-6 in Queen’s College’s favour. Queen’s showed some good enterprising play and were held up over the line. Queen’s led 8-6 at half time.
The second half commenced and after five minutes of play the inspirational Queen’s vice-captain, Justin Hollis, sustained a shoulder injury which forced him from the field.
Good work by the Selborne forwards led to a try in the 50th minute which Gosa converted to give Selborne the lead for the first time in the match 13-8.
Tiaan Bartman, the Queen’s hooker, received a yellow card, which put the Queen’s pack under pressure. With a reshuffled forward pack the Queenians showed good resolve and determination to take the game to Selborne. Bolze was on target and slotted two penalties to take the score to 14-13 in favour of Queen’s with 10 minutes left to play.
Both teams threw everything into the attack in the final minutes of the game. Neither team was able to score any further points.
This match just proved again that in tight matches a team should always take the points when on offer and not look to over-elaborate as that could mean the losing of the game.
Queen’s play Hudson Park in East London on Saturday and will want to build on the momentum they have built up in the last few weeks.
Scorers:
For Queen's:
Try: Sinkhole Ngozi
Pens: Simon Bolze 3
For Selborne:
Try: Forwards
Con: Lungelo Gosa
Pens: Lungelo Gosa 2
By Clinton Löest
