Unlucky Pukke fall at final hurdle

Hamilton's won the SAA National Club Championships at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday when they beat defending champions NWU-Pukke 36-34 and became the first open club since Pirates (Lions) in 2001 to do so.

It was also Hamilton's first national club title after they won the Western Province Super League title for the first time this year since 1936.

And, sadly for Pukke - the losing Varsity Cup finalists earlier this year, it was the third time that they failed to defend their title; the Men from Potchefstroom coming back every second year to be crowned South Africa's finest.

To say that Hamilton's deserved to win the match would be stretching it somewhat, despite their discipline on defence and good work at the tackled ball.

'Hammies' had less than 30 percent of the possession and marginally more of the territory.

But one thing must be said - what Hamilton's did, they did well, unlike the Pukke who made error upon error and also stuck to a pattern of taking wide against a side that simply did not relent on defence when the Pukke backs threatened.

Pukke also scored six tries to three - and it was just their poor luck that fullback Theuns Kotze, accurate throughout the previous three matches in the run-up to the final, kicked just two of his six conversion attempts on the day.

Conversely, Hamilton's scrumhalf Dustin Jinka - who was also outstanding in general play - kicked eight from eight for a tally of 21 points.

The two sides went into half-time with the score at 23-17 to Hamilton's - and the Pukke have only themselves to blame for that deficit, and for the defeat.

By half-time, Pukke had scored three tries to two. Both Hamilton's tries came after poor defence from the students, although the initial work done by winger Terry Jacobs in setting up the try by fullback Elric van Vuuren was outstanding.

The match was probably won in the four minutes after the break when the Pukke backline made a hash of things from the second half restart for Liaan Schriven to go over.

With Jinka converting and repeating the feat with a penalty two minutes later, Hamilton's had stretched ahead to a 33-17 lead - and the Pukke were left to play catch-up.

In addition to the Pukke's frail defence - and not only when the first two tries were scored - they were not up to standard in fielding kick-offs by Hamilton's; their backs lacked fluency which delayed them in hitting the opposition backline; their handling at times was shocking; they were too often isolated in the tackle; and they were perhaps a little too predictable in taking it wide before recycling back to where they were awaited by just about the whole Hamilton's forward pack. The odd kick into the corner would have caught the Capetonians unawares.

The more classy side had lost momentum and the honest grafters took the spoils to show what an off day for the opposition and sticking to the task can achieve.

The scorers:

For Hamilton's:
Tries: Elric van Vuuren, Ashley Down, Liaan Scriven
Cons: Dustin Jinka 3
Pens: Jinka 5

For Pukke:
Tries: Savvas Nel, Kempie Rautenbach, Andries Mahoney, Stefan Bezuidenhout. Willem van der Wal, Willem Barnard
Cons: Theuns Kotze 2