Tough openers on the Green Mile
Have you ever heard of the statement, ‘There is no such thing as an easy win’? Well, the teams in last night’s Steinhoff Internal League matches at UCT surely proved that, with most of the sides having to dig deep to get their first log points on the board.
The main featured match saw the Steinhoff Tornadoes (from their Steinhoff Koshuisrugby campaign) go up against the Steinhoff Panthers.
The Nadoes were the obvious favourites going into the match, despite being without regular No.10, Matthew Russell (who was on club duty), but the Panthers – contrary to what the scoreline suggests – made them work very hard for the victory.
The Tornadoes started like a house on fire, testing the Panthers’ defence, and they soon found a gap in the ninth minute with Sharief Nordien dotting down his first try of the 2010 campaign.
The Panthers came close to scoring twice from the re-start, but the Nadoes defended as if their lives depended on that slim five-nil lead. The Nadoes did, however, relieve some pressure when scrumhalf Anton van der Berg put in a sneaky chip-kick into the Panthers’ 22 which Nordien chased down for his second try – putting the Nadoes up by 10-0 at half-time.
The second half started off with Nadoes playing all the rugger in the Panthers’ half and this, too, paid off with Sharief scoring his third try of the eveining. The Nadoes also scored a fourth – bonus point – try and ended up winning 20-0.
Other results on Wednesday saw Ikhaya scraping through with a 3-0 win over Clarendon.
In another exciting encounter, Smuts beat Ubumbo 18-14; Wildboys beat Kopano 10-0 and the Turtles thrashed newcomers, Catsville CPUT, 34-5.
Outstanding result:
Shebeen Boys v Marquard
By Clement le Roux
Click HERE for the 2010 UCT Steinhoff Internal League fixtures!
