Marlow scores gritty win in Absa Wildeklawer opener
Marlow Landbou and Welkom Gimnasium opened the stacked 2025 Absa Wildeklawer programme just after midday in Kimberley, on Thursday, with an entertaining contest that ebbed and flowed.
From the first whistle, the farmers surged onto the attack, putting the Free State side under heavy pressure in the first five minutes.
After a couple of lineouts deep inside the Welkom Gim 22, Marlow had the put-in at a five-metre scrum, but a knock-on at last allowed the boys in black to escape their half.
In the 10th minute, Gim grabbed the lead when Jadewin Solomons kicked a penalty to become the first points’ scorer of the 2025 event.
A 50/22 kick quickly put Marlow back on the attack and a big drive from a lineout had them over the Welkom Gim tryline, but the ball was held up. The Wolramme then attacked towards the uprights, but their efforts were again thwarted when Gim intercepted a pass and broke out, returning to the opposition’s half. Two good opportunities, but two chances spurned by Marlow.
When they returned to the Gim 22 for a third time, just over a quarter-of-an-hour into the contest, they looked on course for an opening try, but obstruction, after they set up a driving maul, meant Marlow, once again, failed to make the most of a fine scoring opportunity.
At last, Welkom Gim, having escaped dangerous situations three times, began to build up some rhythm, but unforced errors plagued both sides.
Solomons came close to doubling Gim’s advantage, but a penalty kick, from right in front, about 26 metres out, struck the right upright. That would have harsh consequences for his team.
Soon, though, the Free State side bagged the first try of the tournament. It began from a clean lineout take in the Marlow 22, and it finished with Reagan Krige breaking through the defensive line to dive over under the posts. The easy conversion, from Solomons, put Welkom Gim into a 10-0 lead.
Marlow looked odds-on to equalise in the 25th minute when, from a scrum just outside the Welkom Gim 22, a beautifully executed backline move put left-wing WJ Pienaar into a gap. He was tackled less than five metres from the try line but was able to pop a pass to his captain Gian Steyl, on his inside. The try line beckoned, but the ball was knocked on, making it the fourth and best try-scoring opportunity missed by the Eastern Cape side.
Soon, though, they were on the board from a penalty smack-bang in front of the uprights, only five metres out, and Dawid-Malan de Ridder knocked it over.
Welkom Gimnasium surged onto the attack from the kick-off, and a knock-on right on their try line put Marlow under pressure once more. A Gim maul crossed the whitewash, but they were unable to ground the ball. However, from the resulting five-metre scrum, 8th-man Emile Mahlelebe forced his way over and Solomons slotted the easy conversion to extend his team’s lead to 14 points.
Just before the break, it appeared as if Nathan Muller was over for five more, but the effort, which covered half the field was reversed because of a forward pass. The halftime whistle sounded with Welkom Gim up 17-3.
Early in the second half, Marlow scored their first try, with CJ Botha providing the finishing touch after the boys from Cradock forced Welkom Gim incrementally back through a series of phases, with the forwards leading the charge.
Coach Roean Bezuidenhout‘s team came close to a very quick reply, but they knocked on mere metres from the line.
Then, when Welkom Gimnasium collapsed a strong Marlow maul, Jacques Barendse was shown a yellow card, giving Marlow a one-man advantage 10 minutes into the second stanza.
The Wolramme kicked for touch. Then, a missed throw-in worked out well for Marlow, with Adrian Joubert, at the back of the lineout, gratefully taking possession of the ball. He shrugged off two would-be tacklers before bursting through a gap to score.
De Ridder added the extras to bring his team within two of Welkom Gimnasium.
Marlow sliced through the black-clad Gimnasium defence minutes later and was about to dot down again, but the final pass was slightly forward and Welkom Gim breathed a sigh of relief.
In the 53rd minute, after consultation between the referee and one of his assistants, Welkom Gim was struck a further blow when their fullback Jadewin Solomons was shown a red card for an incident at a ruck, leaving his team with only 13 players on the field.
With Solomons, Gim’s kicker off the field, they opted to kick for touch when they received a kickable penalty in the 57th minute. Gim, at the same time, welcomed Barendse back onto the field, leaving them one player down.
It was the lock, Barendse, who cleanly snagged the lineout that resulted from the touchline kick, only five metres from the Marlow line, and Kananelo Tutubala crashed over after being driven across the try line by his pack. There were seven points in it.
With intelligent tactical kicking, Marlow worked their way deep into the opposition’s half and laid siege to the Welkom Gim line after a strong maul took them to within close range of the try line. Then, from a penalty, good hands and swift passing by the backline put WJ Pienaar over in the left-hand corner.
De Ridder’s conversion attempt, from the touchline, fell well short, leaving the farmers still two points adrift with about three minutes remaining.
The Cradock boys had to keep possession and attack, and, from deep in their half, Marlow moved the ball down their backline where flank Adrian Joubert, who had scored earlier, ripped through the Welkom Gim midfield and raced into the Gim half. He drew the last remaining defender and put his captain Gian Steyl away for a try just to the right of the posts.
Steyl’s conversion attempt was wide, but Marlow held on to win by three points.
They made it tough on themselves in the first half with their poor finishing, but, in the second half, they tightened up their play, dug deep, and benefited from Welkom Gimnasium’s disciplinary problems to come from 14 points down at the break to win.
Scorers:
Marlow Landbou 25 (3) – Tries: CJ Botha, Adriaan Joubert, WJ Pienaar, Gian Steyl. Conversion: David-Malan de Ridder. Penalty: De Ridder. Welkom Gimnasium 22 (17) – Tries: Reagan Krige, Emile Mahlelebe, Kananelo Tutubula. Conversions: Jadewyn Solomons (2). Penalty: Solomons.
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