Bishops crash to Boishaai
It is doubtful whether a single person in the huge crowd assembled for this intriguing town versus country derby could possibly have foreseen that the Streeptruie would thump Bishops 80-5 on a lovely warm winter's day at Brug Street.
Trying to describe the carnage involved in this twelve-try-to-one rout is not easy.
Bishops appeared to have decided beforehand to take on Boys’ High up front, which is never a good idea unless one has a pack which is really large and really well-disciplined, neither of which terms applies to the visitors’ eight. The result was that the youngsters from Rondebosch ultimately outfoxed themselves from the very start.
Taking on another side up front also involves commitment from all one’s forwards, which means gaps appear just about everywhere that the loose trio ought to be covering. That much was strikingly obvious, particularly to Craven Week scrumhalf Pieter Schoonraad who exploited this glaring deficiency, three of his four tries coming from darts round the unprotected blind-side at scrum and ruck time.
The visitors’ backs lay shallow throughout and moved so lugubriously on attack that the home cover defence generally cut them down before they got anywhere near the gain line. On those infrequent occasions on which they did use good clean go-forward possession, their moves were agonisingly predictable.
The game could not have started less auspiciously for Bishops as key inside centre Herman Share was forced to leave the field looking very groggy after just four minutes, to be replaced by Michael Mynhardt.
First to score was left wing Danté van der Merwe who capitalised on a razor-sharp break by flyhalf Jean-Luc du Plessis to present fullback Hanno Kotze with the opportunity to land the first of his eight conversions (7-0 after nine minutes).
Two minutes later No.8Johan Botha thundered through from 35 metres out to score thanks to a telescopic stretch, at which point the curtain opened on the Schoonraad Show, the nippy scrumhalf notching three tries, a streak broken only by a powerful charge by flank Derek Taylor from second phase ball at a five-metre penalty. Kotze’s boot took the score to 40-0 at the halfway mark.
Time for a bit of decelaration? Not a bit. Inside centre Henri Nimb got in on the act twice in the opening minutes of the second session and flank Jeandré Brink bagged a five-pointer for himself, which, with two Kotze conversions and one by Du Plessis, gave HJS an impregnable 61-0 advantage after just 44 minutes.
Fortunately some co-ordinated play by the Bishops pack did see lock Flo Groeninx over in the corner to give the visitors a belated presence on the scoreboard, but the Winestars were in a merciless mood and added tries via Kotze, Schoonraad and Danté van der Merwe, one of which Du Plessis goaled before a knock forced him off to rapturous applause, leaving Kotze to slot the last one. Final tally 80-5.
As if they needed it, there was another positive for Boishaai in that Ryno van der Merwe, called up this week for the Western Province Under-19 side, came through his Second XV comeback unscathed and even enjoyed a few minutes of game time for the Firsts.
Normally attractive running rugby is a joy to behold; but not, regrettably, when it is as one-sided as this. As everyone agreed when Gim went through a brief dip a few years ago, Western Province needs all its top school sides to be up to a certain level in order to keep the province competitive. Unfortunately in 2012 this is only a partial reality.
By Tony Stoops