Bishops pip St Andrew's in Grahamstown

St Andrew's last won the annual derby in 2013 since then the Cape Town side had followed it up with four victories.

Both teams headed into this fixture fresh from victories.  St Andrew's beat Hudson Park 31-7 and Bishops beat Piketberg 34-10.

However this year's fixture never really reached great heights as a spectacle. The match was riddled with mistakes and missed chances and there were no less than three intercept tries on the day.

Bishops were first to score in the 16th minute with an intercept try by Murray Bruce. The visitors absorbed long periods of attack and the wing grabbed the opportunity with no one defending the hosts' try-line.   

Two minutes later St Andrew’s  hit back as their overshadowed the visitor's try with their own intercept try.

Centre Matthew More levelled the score at 7-7.

The next five minutes saw College concede five penalties in a row, with Oscar Evans then being yellow carded. A Bishops penalty saw them take a 10-7 lead before College hit back with a well-worked try, finished off by again by the inform  More.

Another intercept try on the stroke of half time saw Bishops go into the break 17-14 up.

St Andrew’s College started the second half with a well-worked try by outside centre Anthony More, after a strong run from wing Byron Sharwood, to once again regain the lead.

Further, try scoring chances were missed by College through poor finishing and a crucial mistake whilst on attack led to Bishops regaining the lead after another counter attack from deep in their own half.

With 10 minutes left to play Bishops scored again, taking them into a 29-21 lead.

Sustained pressure by St Andrew’s College could not be turned into points however and the game ended with Bishops winning 29-21.

The scorers:

For St Andrew's

Tries: M More 2, A More

Cons: Wilson 3

For Bishops:

Tries: Bruce, TBC 3

Cons: Labuschagne 3

Pens: Labuschagne

Teams

St Andrew's: 15 Sean Varty, 14 Jack Allanson, 13 Ant More, 12 Matt More, 11 Byron Sharwood, 10 Murray Wilson, 9 Oscar Evans, 8 Robert Quarmby, 7 Zadok Makani, 6 Graham De Vos, 5 Jason Brown, 4 Christian Roebert, 3 Callum Dugmore, 2 Dean Jenkins (captain), 1 Chulumanco Mngxaso

Bishops: 15 James Ipser, 14 Ross Goodwin, 13 George Spencer, 12 Robert Macdonald (captain), 11 Murray Bruce, 10 Aydan Labuschagne, 9 William Rose, 8 Felix Burt (vice-captain), 7 Matt Norton, 6 Justin Muller, 5 Aidan Neill, 4 Ross Doyle, 3 David Courie, 2 Ghaalieb Kenny, 1 Benjamin Nel

Replacements: 16 Terrence Pettersson, 17 Reece Meyer, 18 Tim Sharples, 19 Matt du Plessis

Source: sacschool.com