Queen's win Border derby again

The Queen's first XV concluded their 2007 season with a satisfying 16-3 victory over Dale College in King William's Town on Saturday afternoon, with neither side scoring points in the second half.

Lionel Cronje's superb kick-off in the first half, enabled Queen's to take the early initiative, through some aggressive forward pressure, which saw Dale concede a penalty in a kickable position, allowing Cronje to give Queen's an early 3-0 lead.

A shell-shocked Dale team found themselves on the receiving end just three minutes later, when lock Bulelani Mbuqe dotted down for Queen's following a well judged grubber from Cronje, which was gathered by Ramashala and flicked to Mbuqe, who was up in support. The conversion was spot on, and Queen's found themselves in a comfortable 10-0 lead within the first five minutes.

Despite their distinct size advantage in the forwards, Dale were unable to match the Queen's forwards who appeared to have a better technique in the set phases. Queen's continued to apply pressure and camped in the Dale half of the field for most of the first half. While Queen's did most of the playing, Dale relied on the huge boot of flyhalf, Logan Basson, to relieve the pressure.

The Queen's tight five worked well to secure their own ball which was taken through the phases with good effect. Their tactic of carrying the ball through the midfield, particularly by prop Andy Mrwebi and lock Samuel Borsah, proved effective. Left wing, Sbura Sithole was on hand to receive a number of well timed reverse passes from his flyhalf and did well to cross the advantage line thanks to his pace and agility.

Dale also used their beefy forwards to good effect, particularly from short line-outs, deploying them between the two centres for the crash ball, but a very resolute Queen's defence held firm. The Dale centre, Lubabalo Mtembu, also used his brute force effectively, to carry the ball across the advantage line.

The remaining points in this half were all scored from the boots of the respective flyhalves with Cronje slotting two very good penalties and Basson of Dale splitting the posts with a mammoth 55-metre penalty.

During the second half, Queen's were unable to play with the same composure of the first half while Dale upped their game, carrying the bell well through numerous phases, but were unable to score points thanks, once again, to some hard hitting tackles from the Queenians. The gentle breeze, now in Dale's favour, was deceptive, and clearly advantaged the attacking side. During the latter stages of the game, the Dale backline looked threatening but failed to round off their play and were denied points.

In the end, Queen's emerged victorious to make it two in a row this season, and six out of six, for the past three seasons !

This brings to an end another good season for the Queen's 1st XV who registered the following season analysis:

Played: 18

Won: 12

Lost: 6

Furthermore, noteworthy milestones were achieved by the following four players, each of whom played more than 50 games (three consecutive seasons) for Queen's: Lionel Cronje (57), Kholo Ramashala (57), Andy Mrwebi (59) and Sibusiso Anthony (59 ).

The coaching staff of Clint Loest, Murray Basset and Julian Thompson, would probably reflect positively, on what has been a satisfying season for the "men in white".

Both, the players and the coaches, would like to thank their loyal supporters and sponsors for the valued support during the season.

By Mike Boy