Armentum to push for that home semi
With one match still to play, Huis Armentum are already assured of a semifinal place in the 2009 Steinhoff Koshuisrugby Championships.
Armentum’s comprehensive 48-10 win over UCT’s Cobras on Monday once again showed their dominance in the Southern section of the competition.
Only the Barbarians from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) still await Armentum in Port Elizabeth this coming Monday and the winner of this match – a curtain-raiser to the NMMU-UJ Varsity Cup fixture – will be guaranteed a home semifinal.
Aside from the prospect of securing a home semifinal, the students from Bloemfontein would especially like to get one over the Barbarians as they lost to them last year in George.
The score on that occasion was 13-all after full-time.
After a ‘kick-at-goal’ competition (to determine the winner) also ended level, the ‘Baa-baas’ were awarded the victory as they scored the most points in the second half of normal play. This also meant the end of Armentum’s hopes of making the semifinals last year.
Against the Cobras it was Armentum’s quick ruck ball and great support-play which was simply too much for the Capetonians as Armentum ran them of their feet. Armentum have now scored 15 tries in just two fixtures – the other, of course, was a 61-19 win over Majuba (Maties).
Flyhalf Inus Kritzinger – who heard that he would be starting against the Cobras on the Thursday evening before the match only – impressed with his tactical kicking, which was crucial in the windy conditions at Groote Schuur.
Coach Willem Kruger, a former ‘prim’ of Huis Armentum, was particularly impressed with his team’s set-piece performance.
“The lineouts, especially, went very well and quite a few players stood out,” Kruger told varsitycup.co.za.
“To have 10 log points in the bag after two matches is great, although there are still many aspects (of our game) to work on.”
Kruger was hesitant to single out any particular players – but for the second week in a row, big loosehead prop Ian Potgieter stood out with a brilliant display in the scrums, putting the Cobras front row under some severe pressure.
Monday’s match against the NMMU Barbarians – at the Xerox NMMU Stadium, South Campus – kicks-off at 4.40pm.
