Valke hold off Border comeback

The Valke survived a second-half scare to beat Border 26-22 in Craven Week Day Four action in Welkom on Thursday afternoon - their first win in the 2010 tournament.

The Valke led 16-0 at half-time, but found themselves up against it in the second half as the Border side - who outscored them by four tries to two in the end - came back strongly.

In the end, however, Border's goalkicking let them down, with fullback Jason Germishuys missing three conversions and two penalties - converting just Andile Jho's try as they ran in all four of their tries in the second half.

Scrumhalf Konke Maholwana scored a brace of tries - either side of inside centre Jho's five-pointer - and fellow replacement Thabo Sisusa's 61st-minute try made it a four-point match in the final ten minutes.

The Valke, meanwhile, had their fullback Ruan Barnard - the official Coca-Cola Man of the Match - to thank, the No.15 converting both his team's tries and also adding four valuable penalties for a match-haul of 16 points.

* The Valke went down 24-26 to Griquas on Day Two and Border lost 13-35 to Free State - also on Tuesday.

The scorers:

For Border:
Tries: Andile Jho, Konke Maholwana 2, Thabo Sisusa
Con: Jason Germishuys

For the Valke:
Tries: Jeandre Kotze, Ruaan Lerm
Cons: Ruan Barnard 2
Pens: Ruan Barnard 4

The teams:

Border: Allan Dell (Queen's), Tyron Fagan (Hudson Park), Sihle Gogela (Queen's), Sinjin Greyvenstein (Dale), Dean Hammond (Selborne), C Love (Selborne), Johan Meyer (Queen's), Kwezi Mona (Selborne), Chase Morrison (Selborne), Mihlali Mpafi (Hudson Park), Roelof Smit (Hangklip), Callan Venter (Selborne), James Alderman (Selborne), Ofentse Boloko (Selborne), Jason Germishuys (Selborne), Andile Jho (Dale), Jermaine Kleinsmith (Hangklip), Bangi Kobese (Dale), Sihle Maholwana (Queen's), Achumile Mashalaba (Dale), Thabo Sisusa (Hudson Park), Keegan van Schalkwyk (Stirling).

Valke: Ruan Barnard (EG Jansen), Gerhardus Benade (Kemptonpark), Ruan Botha (Jeugland), Ruan de Bruto (EG Jansen), Allende Wit (Transvalia), Armand Erasmus (EG Jansen), Otavio Fortuin (Hertzog), Wiehan Hay (Jeugland), Gerson Helder, Michael Holtzhauzen, James Jackson (EG Jansen), Jeandre Kotze (EG Jansen), Vincent Legae, Ruaan Lerm (EG Jansen), Pieter Matthee (EG Jansen), Katlego More (Hans Moore), Xolani Nkosi (Oosterlig), Adrian Oosthuizen (Jeugland), Boitumelo Pooe (Drie Riviere), Keanu Roman (Overvaal), Damian van Wyk (Kemptonpark), Wynand Venter (Jeugland).

Fixtures to follow later today:
2.10pm: Pumas v Griquas
3.30pm: Free State v KwaZulu-Natal