As expected, the Castle Lager Pirates Grand Challenge got off to a flying start on Saturday with Alberton against WITS in the featured game of the weekend and the University of Johannesburg at home to Pirates. The management team at Alberton pulled out all the stops to put together a fantastic day for the fans.
WITS managed a convincing win over the Eland first team, but the Alberton faithful can be happy with their overall results on the day. Alberton first team coaches Hendrik Paulsen and Jaco Botha were understandably disappointed but should take heart in the fact that there is a lot more to come from this young Alberton side. They will be right back in the saddle this week getting ready for their game against Wanderers.
Not once during the eighty minutes did WITS seem out of control, administering slow poison and taking it out of reach of the Elande with some time to spare. WITS head of strength and conditioning, Jacques Durand was quietly content after the game and must be keen to see some of his Varsity Cup players returning into the mix over the next few weeks.
The Alberton management team deserves a special mention: in line with Castle Lager’s vision to get the whole community back down to the clubs, they put together a spectacular event and showed great hospitality to fans and officials alike. The passion is tangible at the club.
In the weekend’s other fixture, Pirates were ecstatic with their win over UJ and even more pleased with the overall results on the day. Four of five results went the way of the Buccaneers with only the U21s ending in Davey Jones’s locker after going down to their UJ counter parts.
If you missed out this weekend don’t fret. The show continues this coming weekend when our featured game takes place at Pirates Rugby Club in Greenside, hosting Raiders in what promises to be a cracking fixture.
Results
Alberton – WITS
1st (5 – 48),
2nd (25 – 14),
3rd (28 – 0) *,
U21 (38 – 25),
U19 (28 – 0) * * WITS did not field a team
UJ – Pirates
1st (26 – 36),
2nd (7 – 19),
3rd (18 – 32),
U21 (44 – 11),
U19 (27 – 35
