Day 1 of the U18 Coca-Cola Academy Week ends with a humdinger

Boland and the Blue Bulls end the first day of the U18 Coca-Cola Academy Week held at HTS Drosdty in Worcester on Monday with the hardest fought match of the day.

The Blue Bulls ended up disappointing a very partisan crowd as they scored a try with a couple of minutes to go to beat Boland 31-24 in a game where each team kept on taking the lead only to lose it a couple of minutes later.

The Blue Bulls scored their tries through a brace from Lylle Maart and tries from Shakeel Fredericks  and Chevan Swart. Boland were kept in the game by a brace from Jaydrin Kotze and a try from lock Jaco Abel.

Western Province was the most impressive team on the day. They were full of running against an outgunned Free State side and looked like a complete team, with big strong forwards and skilled hard-running backs.

Carlu Sadie, Danrich Visagie, Michael Meyer, Mitchell Carstens, Mujaahid van der Hoven and Taigh Schoor all crossed the for Province line in the one sided affair.

Free State could only manage one try through Johan Steyn after he was setup by a brilliant solo run by George Mokhomo in the last quarter of the game, but the Western Province had already won the game by then.

Eastern Province was another team to shine when they beat the Mpumalanga Pumas in one of the most exciting games of the day.

In the first 30 minutes of the first half the teams traded tries with Pumas wing Fana Ngwenya  and lock Lukhanyiso Makaula scoring and nippy Eastern province scrumhalf Lucianon Grootboom and eigthman Dean van der Westhuizen responding with their own tries. Eastern Province managed to edge ahead 23-17 in last 5 minutes of the first half, thanks to two penalties kicked by Garrick Mattheus.

EP then showed their class in the second half scoring another four tries through Dean van der Westhuizen, his second of the match, Denver Johan Kleu, Duan Joe Du Plessis, Duwayne Baartman to two from the Mpumalanga Pumas winning the game 49-31.

The Gauteng Lions work made to work hard by the Red Valke who led the game until half time. The Lions only got into their game in the second half to score 19 unanswered points to win by a flattering 26-12.

There were also big wins for Eastern Province Country districts who beat the Leopards 37-0, the Blue Valke who beat the SA LSEN team 31-8 and Border who beat the Griffons 34-10.

Day 1 Results

Griffons 10  Border 34, Griquas 17 Griffons CD 18, Border CD 0 Griquas 33, Limpopo Blue Bulls 31 Pumas CD 3, Golden Lions 26 Red Valke 12, EP CD 37 Leopards 0, EP CD 37 Leopards 0, Pumas 31 Eastern Province 49, Border CD 0 Griquas CD 33, Valke 31 SA LSEN 8, Western Province 43 Free State 5, Namibia 22 KwaZulu-Natal CD 22