Awesome Heimat nail down final spot!
Heimat booked their place in the 2009 Kovsies Steinhoff Koshuisliga Final when they recorded a 22-10 win over Vishuis on Friday.
This top of the log clash was unfortunately not always the quality one would have expected from these two teams.
The losing side was first out of the blocks with a try by their star lock Gerhard Meyer. Cobus van der Westhuizen missed the conversion from the left-hand corner, as well as a penalty shortly after.
Heimat opened their account towards the end of the first quarter when their impressive flank Boer van Niekerk went blindside. His pass found scrumhalf Ernst Boshoff who brushed of a Vishuis tackle to score right in the corner.
Fullback Mindus Crous, the top points-scorer in the competition, converted for a 7-5 lead and eight minutes later, the selfsame Crous increased Heimat’s lead to 10-5.
Vishuis themselves looked dangerous when the ball went through the hand at times. Unfortunately for them there weren’t many of these opportunities from set-phases due to Heimat’s dominance up front. Vaatjie Koorsen (loosehead), De Wet Dreyer (hooker) and James Hellawell (tighthead) destroyed Vishuis in the scrums.
Heimat’s lineout play was also top-notch with their lock Lebo Zietsmann hardy having a ball taken off him. The winning team’s direct play, ably led by their inside centre Francois Crous, ensured them of front-foot ball more often than not.
Heimat’s tactical kicking game forced Vishuis to run from their own half, which again led to handling errors at crucial stages.
The mobile Zietsmann continued his good form and kept Vishuis very busy on defence. A try by him in the 61st minute after continued attack by Heimat, made it 15-5.
Vishuis supporters were given the slightest of hopes when replacement hooker Martin Ferreira scored three minutes before the end from a well-orchestrated maul. This brought them to within five points of Heimat.
But from the restart Vishuis ran the ball in an attempt to score the winning try. A knock on occurred, however, and Mindus Crous picked the ball up and dotted down without a hand being laid on him. His conversion made it 22-10 and denied Vishuis of a much-needed bonus point for finishing within seven points.
Scorers: HEIMAT – Tries: Ernst Boshoff, Lebo Zietsmann, Mindus Crous. Conversions: Mindus Crous (2). Penalty: Crous. VISHUIS – Tries: Gerhard Meyer, Martin Ferreira.
* JBM (pictured, above) kept their hopes alive of filling the remaining spot in the final. They recorded a 35-22 win over the struggling Armentum (the 2009 Steinhoff Koshuisrugby champions) and scored four tries for a crucial bonus point. They are now joint second with Vishuis on 35 log points.
The match was over as a contest as early as the beginning of the second half when fullback David van der Vyfer dotted down for the bonus point try. He also contributed two drop-goals.
Like the week before, Armentum showed some heart answering with two tries but it was not enough in the final analysis.
Scorers: JBM – Tries: Dirk Dippenaar (2), David van der Vyfer, Anthony Jevu. Conversions: Jacques Roberts (3). Penalty: Roberts. Drop-goals: David van der Vyfer (2). ARMENTUM – Tries: John Ben Naudé, Ian Potgieter, Robbie Heir. Conversions: Leon Pretorius (2). Penalty: Pretorius.
* Veritas had few difficulties beating Karee 38-15. These two teams are now in a contest with Armentum to qualify for the remaining spot in the Kovsies Steinhoff Koshuisliga Plate Final.
Scorers: VERITAS – Tries: Marnus Marais, William de ‘Ath, Danie Cronjé, Gerrit Theron, Bennie Piek, Gerrit Smits. Conversions: Danie Cronjé (4). KAREE – Tries: NW Smit, Juan Bekker. Conversion: Danie Schoeman. Penalty: Jacques van der Heever.
* Look out for an article on this site later in the week, when www.varsitycup.co.za will discuss all the permutations for Thursday’s last round of matches!
The log:
(Under played, won, bonus points and log points)
Heimat 11, 9, 5, 41
Vishuis 11, 7, 7, 35
JBM 11, 8, 3, 35
Armentum 11, 2, 6, 16
Veritas 11, 2, 5, 13
Karee 11, 2, 3, 13
