Kimberley is green for another year as Northerns defeat Diamonds
Hoërskool Noord-Kaap claim the bragging rights in Kimberley for the year, beating their neighbours, Diamantveld, 18-17 in a dramatic battle, decided by a last-second penalty conversion.
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Kimi van den Horst, the Northerns’ centre opened the scoring on Pirates, slicing through the Diamonds’ defence and stating the home team’s intent within the first ten minutes.
The visitors, however, had their own agenda and two tries by Liam Ferris (fullback) and Simon Liversage (centre) gave them the lead,
Ferris showed immense pace to get to a kick forward by his scrumhalf, Dirk van Heerden, before anyone else.
Then Liversage received the ball on the blindside after a good, dominant scrum by his forwards and rounded off the try in the corner.
That said, the Northerns pack did extremely well to match the big Diamantveld boys at the set pieces. Moeketsi Lang came off the bench in the first half and did not give an inch to his opposite number, the big prop, Flip du Randt.
Northern Cape showed great character to claw one back before halftime, even after being reduced to 14 men with a yellow card.
None other than Junior Kettledas, the winger who has been so threatening with ball in hand all season, finished off a try in the corner after a period of tireless attack by his team, during which it seemed like every Noord-Kaap player carried the ball at least once.
After 20 minutes of trading blows in the second half, during which time neither team could get past their opponents, Noord-Kaap took the lead once more.
Their scrumhalf, Lwandle Maseko, was awake to an opportunity, seeing that the Diamantveld defence were a bit slow to organize themselves he took a quick tap, deep in his own half and spread the ball wide to their winger, Keante Pienaar, who left the Diamonds defenders grasping at air as he bolted away along the touchline to score.
It looked like the visitors had stolen it with only four minutes left on the clock, when Liversage made another excellent break and managed to get the ball out to his other centre, Valentino Lenge, who is no stranger to the scoresheet himself, to score the try that regained the lead.
With only about two minutes left to play after the conversion attempt, it looked like Diamantveld might have stolen an epic victory, but the home team were still not done.
Spurred on by the supporters, wave after wave of Noord-Kaap attack after the kickoff led to a penalty being awarded with only a minute left in the game.
Eldrigde Jack (flyhalf) showed absolutely world-class composure to step up and convert the long-range penalty in the dying moments of the big match, after not being able to convert any of the tries earlier.
He shook off any pressure he might be feeling and converted the winning penalty, securing a famous victory for his side.
Welkom Gimnasium continued their impressive run of form at home, comprehensively beating the visiting Hoërskool Trio by 44-17.
The Gimmies’ backline has been a thing of beauty this year, and they have been providing some of the most spectacular tries every weekend.
A team that is made for the highlight reels with their scintillating tries and extravagant celebrations, the boys from Welkom have outplayed many of their opponents thus far this season.
St. Anne’s Technical from Saaiplaas in Virginia managed their first win in their debut season, seeing away with Virginia High 42-0.
The team has shown great improvement since they first stepped onto the field at the Fichardtpark Nashua Sports Day early in March,
The scorers:
Noord-Kaap 18 (10) – Tries: Keante Pienaar, Kimi van den Horst, Junior Kettledas. Penalty: Eldrige Jack. Diamantveld 17 (12) – Tries: Liam Ferris, Simon Liversage, Valentino Lenge. Conversion: Marco Matthewson.
Welkom Gimnasium 44 (18) – Tries: Julian Samuels, Renaldo Kiewiet, Ethan Jones, Hloni Mokotjo, Navan Goeda, Tristan Appollis, Taschon Meas. Doelskoppe: Kiewiet (3). Strafdoel: Kiewiet. Hoërskool Trio 17 (0) – Tries: Heinrich Loubser (2), Kabeya Haaron. Conversion: Louis Boshoff.
Goudveld-Hoërskool 26 – Tries: Lodie van Dyk, Jan Coetzee, Juanricht Cloete, Jonathan Olivier. Conversions: Ruben Crous (3). Hentie Cilliers 3 – Penalty: Paseka Mokoena.
Other results:
u19A – St Anne’s Technical 42, Virginia High 0.
