WP pulling clear in U19 race

Aug 18 • General News • 2787 Views • Comments Off on WP pulling clear in U19 race

The DHL Western Province Under-19 side on Saturday kept their unbeaten run in the Absa Under-19 Provincial Championship A-Division on track with a hard-fought 16-11 win over nearest rivals Vodacom Blue Bulls to open up a five point lead on the log standing.
The Blue Bulls, the defending champs, are still second on the log after their closest rival, Toyota Free State lost 9-7 to the Cell C Sharks.

In the other match played this weekend, EP Kings shocked the Xerox Golden Lions, beating the home side 18-8 at Ellis Park.

A summary of the main results are:

Xerox Golden Lions 7 (7), EP Kings 18 (8)

An early try to the hosts seemed to pave the way for an expected victory, but they were outplayed by the Kings, who scored late in each half to seal the win.

Their first was scored by CJ Velleman, who now top the try scoring stats in the competition, having dotted down five times in six matches.

It was a tight match with few chances, but the Kings just played the big moments better and deserved the win.

Scorers:

Golden Lions (Under-19) 7 (7). Try: Fred Bezuidenhout. Conversion: Kobus Engelbrecht.
EP Kings (Under-19) 18 (8). Tries: CJ Velleman, Lindelwe Zungu. Conversion: Malcolm Jaer. Penalties: Jaer (2)

DHL Western Province 16 (6), Vodacom Blue Bulls 11 (3).

In Cape Town, DHL Western Province opened up a five point margin in the log standings by beating nearest rival, the Vodacom Blue Bulls, 16-11. It was a tight match with each side only scoring one try apiece.

The reliable boot of Ernst Stapelberg again helped the home side to keep their unbeaten run intact as he scored 11 points to take his season tally to 81. This is almost double the number scored by Arno Kotze (49), who is in second place on the point scoring log.

Stapelberg kicked two penalties in the first half to give his side a 6-3 lead at the break. A successful conversion of Daniel du Plessis’ early second half try and a third penalty gave the home side a 16-3 advantage.

Duhan van der Merwe scored for the visitors with ten minutes to play, but the Blue Bulls could not muster another score that would have saved the match.

The visitors did well in the first half after Dewald Human was yellow carded, but could not close the gap in the second.

Scorers:

WP (Under-19) 16 (6). Try: Daniel du Plessis. Conversion: Ernst Stapelberg. Penalties: Stapelberg (3).
Blue Bulls (Under-19) 11. Try: Duhan van der Merwe. Penalties: Simon Bolze, Dewald Human.

Cell C Sharks 9 (9), Toyota Free State 7 (7)

It was a low-scoring affair in Durban on Friday, where the home side secured a much needed win against Free State, one of the form teams in the competition.

The Sharks could not score any tries, but had in Innocent Radebe a reliable goal-kicker who slotted all three penalties on offer.

The Free State kicker, Andre Swarts, unfortunately missed with two attempts in the second half that could have altered the result.

Scorers:

Cell C Sharks (Under-19) 9 (9). Penalties: Innocent Radebe (3)
Toyota Free State (Under-19) 7 (7). Try: Gunthwer Janse van Vuuren. Conversion: Darren Baron

•In the B-Division, Boland beat Griquas 26-10, Limpopo Blue Bulls opened their participation in the competition with a 11-10 win over SWD in Polokwane, the Steval Pumas dropped a 15-46 to Valke and Down Touch Griffons beat Border 47-38.

Courtesy of SARU