by Ben-Piet Lotter
The feature game of the weekend turned out to be as closely contested as expected. Roodepoort scored early through a clever lineout move. The ball was popped off the top to Tristan Dullisear who crashed through the middle of the lineout to score. Raiders saw three scoring opportunities laid to waste by handling errors in the first 30 minutes and only managed one unconverted try in the first half. Towards the end of the game, with only minutes left on the clock, the score was 17 -12 to Roodepoort. Raiders backed themselves with a tap-and-go penalty close to the Roodepoort line, to score in the corner. A tough conversion from the left-hand corner for the left-footed John Khubeka was unsuccessful, leaving the scoreboard at 17-17 as the final whistle went.
The Pirates vs Alberton match was somewhat of a stop-start affair. Coach Brian Armitage, however, was happy with the bonus point win. The Rat Pack was dominant, resulting in four tries from line-out drives while backs, Devan Brough and Duncan Delport, were able to breach the Alberton midfield with ease. Kevin du Randt was the forward of the match and Jared Branco the back-line player of the match. The final score: 36-6 to Pirates.
We hope it warms up a bit as the week progresses and we do it all again with some piping hot Castle Lager Pirates Grand Challenge rugby on the weekend.
