Rondebosch on tour in Wales
After much anticipation, we finally made it to our first match with a new team on our in Wales.
The scene was set deep in the valleys of Wales against Bridgend at Maesteg RFC for a game under lights. The club is also known as 7777. The story is that in the early days of the club (est 1877) one of the club members died tragically at the age of 28. The coffin maker could not carve the curves of the number 8 in the lid, so he carved four sevens!
The match could not have started in a worse manner when Bridgend moved the ball wide from the kick-off and scored in the corner. We immediately worked our way back up the field and in the third minute Tyren Lee made the score 3-5 with an easy penalty. The rest of the first half was messy with Bridgend having a slight upper hand simply as a result of their greater experience. Our inexperience showed in the almost naïve way we played and they won all the game's man rounds resulting in Levi being yellow carded for not releasing the ball while we were on the attack in their half of the field! Two more penalties saw us into half-time trailing 3-11.
The second half started with one of the Bridgend players being carded for killing the ball at the breakdown. After a good attacking move Tim Hillock scored near the corner and we thought we were in the game with the score at 8-11. Bridgend responded with vengeance and scored a converted try, a drop-goal, and another penalty in the next six minutes (with only 14 men on the field!).
With the score 8-24 only 15 minutes from the end, everyone around the field thought the match as a contest was over. However, those extra hours of training and fitness sessions started to kick in. Our boys might have been less experienced, but they were the fitter team on the field by a long way. It all started with Brett Paulse bursting over the line for a try that Tyren Lee converted 10 minutes from the end. Five minutes later Alex Mather finished off a beautiful midfield move and the conversion by Tyren Lee took us within two points. With time basically up we got quick ball wide to Justin Nortier deep inside our own half. He was our last chance and he turned on all the gas to leave a few desperate defenders behind. The cover defence caught up with him in the corner but he did very well to step and then reach for that final magical try.
Shortly thereafter the final whistle went and with some confusion on the field about the final score, for the Bridgend players celebrated their win. Fortunately the referee kept a score card and it was not necessary for me to tell him that Bosch actually won the match 27-24.
Our hosts were very gracious and awarded Graham Geldenhuys their Forward of the Match and Tim Hillock the Backline Player of the Match.
The boys left the grounds on a high and we are looking forward to our next match - even deeper into the valleys...
By Gustaf Pienaar, the Rondebosch manager