St Andrew’s holds on for narrow win in close encounter
St Andrew’s College clung on to record a three-point win at home on Saturday against a very good Nico Malan team, with the final score reading 24-21.
A fantastic gather by hooker, Joe Wostenholm, saw the forward advance on the try line and score the opening try of the match. The easy conversion kick, from directly in front of the posts, was converted by Scott Miles.
Nico Malan was then reduced to 14 players when Reegan Stone picked up a yellow card.
Building on the momentum from scoring the first try, St Andrew’s extended their lead. After spending some time in their opponent’s half, College took a quick tap-and-go penalty, stabbed through a clever grubber kick, and it bounced favourably for the chasing Thato Machaba, who gobbled up the ball to take it over the line.
Nico Malan struck back almost immediately, making good use of their kick-off to score a try in the corner and reduce the deficit to just seven at halftime. Crisjan de Lange dotted down while scrumhalf Jean Joubert added the extras.
After the break, St Andrew’s struck first, with a penalty kick right in front of the posts adding a further three points to their tally.
Nico Malan kept throwing the kitchen sink at them, trying to find a way through the rugged St Andrew’s defence. Eventually, they broke through, with Pietman Kleinhans going over to pull his team to within a single score.
Then, when St Andrew’s was awarded a penalty, they opted to kick for touch and set up a lineout within 10 metres of the Nico Malan try line. After securing the throw-in, the hosts brilliantly engineered a scoring opportunity, which was taken by flanker Phillip Maske.
With time running out, Nico Malan added another penalty goal, but it was not enough to bring them the win.
Both packs will take a lot out of the match after some very tightly contested scrums by two strong sets of forwards. Playing on a hard surface at the start of the season, both sides did well.
St Andrew’s will feel relieved to have led throughout the match and to have hung onto their lead until the end. Nico Malan was, however, never far behind and was always in the contest.
Next week St Andrew’s find themselves up against Brandwag, while Nico Malan takes on Dale College at the Graeme College Rugby Festival.
Scorers:
St Andrew’s College 24 (14) – Tries: Thato Machaba, Joe Wostenholm, Phillip Maske. Conversions: Scott Miles (3). Penalty: Miles. Nico Malan 21 (7) – Tries: Crisjan de Lange
Pietman Kleinhans, Francois Smit. Conversions: Jean Joubert (3).
Other Results:
u16: Nic Malan 41, St andrew’s College 33.
u15: Nico Malan 15, St Andrew’s College 7.
u14: Nico Malan 59, St Andrew’s College 14.
The teams:
Hoerskool Nico Malan: 15 Brenda Owen, 14 Reegan Stone, 13 Enzo Mchaba 12 Gelden Van Niekerk, 11 Tequine Koopman, 10 Ruan du Preez, 9 Jean Joubert, 8 Pietman Kleinhans, 7 Crisjan de Lange, 6 Hannes Kleinhans 5 JP Hendricks, 4 Edrich Kleu 3 Victor de Villiers 2 MC Ferreira 1 Francois Smit.
St Andrews College: 15 Karabo van Heerden, 14 Julian Mapoore, 13 Nicholas Hall, 12 Aphindile Ngcuka 11 Aza Nonxuba (Vice-capt) 10 Scott Miles, 9 William Stern, 8 Ucwambu Mgudlwa, 7 Matthew Harvey, 6 Philipp Maske, 5 Robert Faber, 4 Roman van Zyl, 3 Thato Machaba, 2 Joe Wostenholm (Capt), 1 Mark Were.
