by Ben-Piet Lotter
Alberton Rugby Club put together a spectacular event for our Feature Game this weekend. Castle Lager umbrellas lined the field in front of a big stage from where the music started flowing as soon as the final match concluded. Some of the most enormous fire pits we’ve seen were lit up and kept the fans warm as the festivities continued late into the night.
Unfortunately, Alberton could not maintain the same level of flair on the field. Roodepoort coach, Neil Kalify said: “It is always a challenge playing opposition in their backyard” and Roodepoort will feel that they left a few scoring opportunities on the field. They did, however, manage to break through the Alberton midfield with relative ease to record a convincing 36-3 victory- a result with which they will be happy, considering they were testing quite a few new combinations in the starting line-up.
Raiders director of rugby, Derek Jardine commended Wanderers on a spirited performance noting that the 86-3 score line is not a true reflection of the ability of the Wanderers team. Wanderers coach, Guy Coutts echoed the sentiment: “Raiders just capitalized on our mistakes again and managed to punish us every single time for them.” Raiders will appreciate the win which keeps them in playoff contention. They currently sit in 5th position on the log, two points behind Roodepoort.
We head into the week with another fantastic weekend of Castle Lager Pirates Grand Challenge rugby behind us; a crowd of no less than 3000 people enjoyed a great day at the Feature Game, with more of the same to look forward to over the next couple of months.
