ABSA U21 Preview: Eastern Province vs Sharks
It’s pretty much been an “up river without a paddle” for the newly promoted Eastern Province Under-21s in this year’s ABSA Under-21 Competition.
Having won the B Division since 2012, and not quite able to get one past their neighbours Border, in the promotion / relegation to the A Division, they finally beat them in 2014.
The season has been a difficult one for the young men from Port Elizabeth with the tournament reaching the halfway stage. Eastern Province are bottom of the log with six defeats from six games.
Eastern Province started off their campaign with two away matches against the Free State and the Leopards, going down 58 – 12 and 28 – 8. The following three matches were played at home against the Western Province, Blue Bulls and Golden Lions.
The game against the Bulls came down to the second half, as only one point separated the teams at half-time. The Bulls added four second half tries to their one in the first half to beat the home side 39 – 20.
This coming weekend’s game against the Sharks will be their return match after they met a fortnight ago in Durban. The visitors came back strong in the second half after trailing 8 – 26 at the break. Eastern Province scored two second half tries to stay in the game, but the Sharks added two penalties to stay ahead as the final score ended 32 – 20.
Eastern Province have scored 87 points from their six matches, which includes 12 tries and conceded 187 points and a total of 39 tries. With the tournament only at the half way stage, Eastern Province still have a few games left to better their position on the log as they are only 6 points behind the Leopards, who are on 6 log points, and also to avoid a relegation match at the end of the season.
Simon Bolze is the top points scorer for Eastern Province on 16 points, with two conversions and four penalties. Malcolm Jear is the top try scorer for EP on two and he has also kicked two conversions which puts him two points behind Bolze on 14.
Written by Pierre Mc Leod
