Armentum just too strong - again

Huis Armentum (Shimlas) recorded a comprehensive 45-26 win over Maroela (Tuks) at Shimla Park on Monday night to progress to the final of the 2009 Steinhoff Koshuisrugby Championships.

Armentum totally outplayed Maroela and always looked in control; the Men from the Free State can now go into next Monday’s final – against Dromedaris (UJ) or Barbarians (NMMU) with plenty of confidence.

But it was the visitors who scored the opening points (in the very first minute) when tall No.8 Fritz Hagen finished off a try after they kept some good continuity.

Armentum, however, levelled affairs shortly afterwards when flyhalf Inus Kritzinger scored a fine solo try. From the scrum he stepped his opposite number Adriaan Bornman to go over the sticks untouched.

Kritzinger stretched Armentum’s lead to 10-7 with a successful penalty kick from 40 metres out. After some severe pressure and continues attack by Armentum, Gareth Lourens (left-wing) scored in the right-hand corner. Although Kissinger’s kick went wide, he added another three-pointer to hand his team an 18-7 half-time lead.

In contrast to the first half, Armentum got the first points of the second half, also in the very first minute after the break.

Their forwards kept driving up the ball and after a patient build-up, right-wing Michael Bosch gathered a perfect cross-kick by Kritzinger to finish.

Kritzinger converted and when tighthead prop Cobus Greeff scored minutes after, one felt that was it all over as a contest as Armentum assembled a 32-7 lead.

And it did turn out to be game, set and match… This seemed to relax the home team and they started to play some champagne rugby with lots of confidence. This led to the try of the match; first No.13 Morkel Hoffmann drew a few defenders before off-loading to Lourens who simply had to touch down for his second of the evening and a 39-7 lead.

Maroela did manage to pull three tries back, but it was always going to be a tall order to close the big deficit at that stage.

One of the scorers, fullback Stefan van Wyk, was richly rewarded for a fine performance.

For Armentum, No.8 Johnny Schoeman had another stormer, doing lots of covering work and as effective as always on attack.

At the back, both scrumhalf Enrico Schultz and centre Hoffman had splendid evenings.

Maroela’s biggest mistake on the night was the large amount of space they allowed Armentum to attack with. To Armentum’s credit, they fully exploited this room and always came away with points when they had scoring opportunities.

The scorers:

For Armentum:
Tries: Kritzinger, Lourens 2, Bosch, Greeff
Con: Kritzinger 4
Pens: Kritzinger 3, Myburgh

For Maroela:
Tries: Hagen, Van Wyk, Vorster, Gouws
Con: Bornman 3

The teams:

Huis Armentum: 15 Kobus Neethling, 14 Michael Bosch, 13 Morkel Hoffmann, 12 Jannie Myburgh, 11 Gareth Lourens, 10 Inus Kritzinger, 9 Enrico Schultz, 8 Johnny Schoeman, 7 Dedrik Pretorius (captain), 6 Niekie Potgieter, 5 Joubert Horn, 4 Michiel de Wet, 3 Ian Potgieter, 2 Toffie van Tonder, 1 Cobus Greeff.
Replacements: 16 Herman van der Watt, 17 Chris Mans, 18 Thys-Koch Burden, 19 Mynhardt van der Walt, 20 Pieter van Zyl, 21 Janneman Kotzé, 22 JP van der Berg.

Maroela: 15 Stefan van Wyk, 14 Jaco Myburgh, 13 JP Viljoen, 12 Shaun Eastman, 11 Janco Gouws, 10 Adriaan Bornman (captain), 9 Jan-Spruyt Steenkamp, 8 Fritz Hagen, 7 Fritz Reynders, 6 Theunis Jacobs, 5 Rudolph Smith, 4 Wade O’Donaghue, 3 EC Landman, 2 Lucius van Schalkwyk, 1 Eugene Badenhorst.
Replacements: 16 Dirk Landman, 17 Stoffel du Plessis, 18 Francois Webb, 19 Luvan Cass 20 Frans du Plessis, 21 Francois van Wyk, 22 Ampie Vorster.

By Ruan Bruwer