The South Western Districts Young Eagles convincingly beat the Blue Bulls 22-10 in the final game of day two at the Coca-Cola Grant Khomo under-16 week in Queenstown today to virtually assure themselves a spot in Thursday’s final game of the week.
Centre EW Viljoen scored all the Free State points via a try and two penalties. Dennis Cox kicked two penalties for Western Province.
Griquas CD 89 Border CD 3,
Namibia 20 Leopards 7,
Limpopo 8 Boland 7,
Griffons 27 Griquas 7,
Valke 23 Pumas 22,
KwaZulu-Natal 33 Border 13,
Free State 11 Western Province 6,
Eastern Province 13 Golden Lions 3,
SWD 22 Blue Bulls 10
Playing in the prestigious “main game” is all the sides have to play for at all the Coca-Cola Youth Weeks which are all run strictly as festivals with no league points awarded and no overall winners declared.
The Blue Bulls have a massive forward pack – their two locks are over 2m tall and they have a prop that weighs in at 122kg, so most of those present would have expected them to steamroll their smaller opponents. But it was not to be. The Young Eagles have one or two backs with genuine pace, and more than a few who have oodles of flair and they simply ran their bigger opponents off their feet in the second half of the game.
It was tight at halftime. The Blue Bulls were 5-0, with both sides battling in the wet conditions and freezing cold. The heavy going was definitely favouring the boys from Pretoria at that stage.
It was different story after the break. SWD ran in the next three tries, to go 22-5 up and it was only a typical Blue Bull forward try late in the game that gave the score line some respectability.
The SWD tries were scored by Deald Human, Hendri Strom and Timothy Price, with Warrick Geknat adding a penalty and two conversions. The Blue Bull tries were scored by David Van Wyk and Irvan Kekae.
Assuming SWD do get the nod for one of the final game slots, their likely opponents will be Eastern Province. EP have now knocked off two of the big schools unions – they beat the Golden Lions 13-3 yesterday after sneaking home 14-10 against Western Province.
Their style of play has won them many friends in the Eastern Cape crowd here in Queenstown and in winger Siya Lawu they have one of the most exciting runners on display at the tournament.
The Golden Lions simply made too many mistakes, and gave away too many penalties, to be competitive.
Lawu scored two tries for EP and Theo Stapelberg kicked two penalties. Innocent Radebe got the Lions’ only points via a penalty.
The other unbeaten side among the big guns of the tournament are Free State. They inflicted a second defeat on Western Province, beating them 11-6 in the worst conditions of the day – an icy driving rain fell during the game and both sides did well to play constructive rugby under the circumstances.
Free State had to scramble on defence to hold on to an 8-5 lead late in the game, but they survived and went on to kick a last minute penalty to make the game safe.
Centre EW Viljoen scored all the Free State points via a try and two penalties. Dennis Cox kicked two penalties for Western Province.
The most exciting game of the day was the first on the main field. It was won 23-22 by The Valke after the Pumas kicker fluffed an injury-time penalty in front of the posts which would have given his side victory.
Day 2 Results
Namibia 20 Leopards 7,
Limpopo 8 Boland 7,
Griffons 27 Griquas 7,
Valke 23 Pumas 22,
KwaZulu-Natal 33 Border 13,
Free State 11 Western Province 6,
Eastern Province 13 Golden Lions 3,
SWD 22 Blue Bulls 10
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