Wrap: The Quarter Finals… Anyone who has had the opportunity of experiencing it, will tell you that getting dragged home on a Tuesday night from Tiger to the room of a Carinus girl is a life changing experience. So I hear, it is fast, competitive, sweaty and over before you know it.
I am now under the impression that quarter-finals are pretty similar to Carinus girls, the only difference being the rugby can only happen 8 times in one night...which is far less than the res-food fuelled Carinus lass.
With the League now split into The Cup (top 8) and The Bowl (bottom 8) competitions the ¼s involves sides pushing for a win to be in the winning semi-finals as opposed to in the losing semis next week with other ¼ final losers.
The first four games of the evening (early afternoon thanks to having to accommodate an extra game on each field) were the ¼ finals for The Bowl. The League is more fairly split now according to a strength v strength division. The leveling of the playing fields as such only made the competition fiercer.
First up Clarendon battled impressively to win a tight 7-0 game against Kopano. It was a very physical games but unfortunately many individuals preferred the abrupt ‘high school trials’ approach to the game and never looked to pass before contact. In a free flowing game, the nippy Clarendon 13 ran from deep out of his goal dead ball area before off loading to the hard working number 8 who had a Juan Smith style run up field before ignite another series of offloads all the way into the Kopano 22m, whereby some bonehead knocked it on. Kopano countered the advantage running it all the way back to Clarendon line where another bonehead knocked it on. The passage of player was longer than this paragraph but credit goes to the hard running Clarendon workhorses especially since they spent Tuesday night with Carinus girls.
The other game saw College sustain their very rare and mildly rich vein of form and continued there winning streak by defeating Spanners, 19-7.
In two of the not-so-close contests of the night Easterns sneaked home 26-10 against Smuts. Smuts scored two great tries but could never hold their fleeting dominance for any consistent time period. Easterns were very chilled in their approach and can blame their own finishing for repeatedly letting Smuts back in the door.
Ikhaya were on the receiving end of a 5 try routing courtesy the Shebeen Boys. Ikhaya set a powerful platform through excellent scrumming but never did anything beyond that. Shebeen Boys were far stronger and blatantly weird on the sidelines. It could have been half-price ribs and draught night at the Cattle Baron if you didn’t notice the rugby.
The rugby this week was of a clearly higher standard than normal and it would probably be on account of the more reflective match ups. The other factor was of course that the business end of the competition attracts more prestige. Prestige attracts women. Women attract men. Basically the guy that was happier on the couch during the pool stages whilst his mates battled it out scrumcap and gumguard in the pouring rain and toxic mud has now PVRed Survivor and decided to try use his rugby boots to become famous…again.
Its the same guys every year. No where when there is no glory involved and a little bit of precipitation; but in full flight during the play-offs sporting his new (and for some reason always white) rugger boots, gelled hair and shoulder pads. He inevitably passes a ball behind his back and craps on his mate that doesn’t catch it but is more astute and reloading his depth when there is a ruck to hit. Who are you phantom player? Come do the hard work next year.
In The Cup competition Ubumbo stamped on the dreams of the little train that could and schooled the Turtles in a blazing display of powerful rugby. The only thing worse than the Turtles performance was their Officer-in-charge of Editing and Spelling for their PR department’s upper campus poster nightmare. It was amusing watching the octogenarian referee call the game as it literally looked like he was there to oversee a child playing with its ninja turtle figurines. But credit must go where (wear?) its due. The B League minnows never even made a semi-final down there but here they are fighting with the big dogs.
The headline game of the evening was a repeat of last years final and lived up to the grudge behind it. In the end the Nadoes walked away comfortable 13-6 winners over the Barbarians despite been deservedly down to 14 men for more than half the game, after senior player Graham Barrit suffered a nasty brain freeze and earned himself a very red card. The game didn’t erupt thankfully but the tension of the game did destroy the rugby part of the
game and the contest ended up tight and hard, but rather bland. The Barbarians took terrible decisions sending the ball wide when it should have stayed tight, or keeping it tight when it should have gone wide and early. Nadoes on the other hand were very astute in their decision making but faltered when it came to finishing and building momentum. Barbarians flyhalf Mauro Ciochetti, had a main performance and held his side together with a great deal of balls, maturity and two wonderful place kicks off old school sand.
The rise of the Purple Cobras continued in full force as they breezed past a very bold Marquard side 28-7. The hard hitting lower campus boys managed to stem the flow that the Cobras usually generate but didn’t play with the same accuracy on attack.
The last game of the evening managed to fly under the radar of my less perceptive co-writer who failed to tip it as a major game of the night as it was in fact the replay of last years B League final. Over the past three years the Wildboys and Panthers have developed a competitive comity build on respect and rugby. They are the epitome of rivals. In 2005 the Panthers beat the Wildboys twice to take the league honours, but then Wildboys bounced back in 2006 when they beat the Panthers in the Finals to displace them on the podium. This was their first encounter in 2007 and it was frantic.
In the first half the Wildboys scored two brilliant tries through fullback, and the League’s leading try scorer, Warren ‘Oupa Ohata’ Kelly with the Panthers only scoring through a seemingly innocuous (well at that stage anyways) 50metre drop goal Francois Steyn style from fullback Hilton Brown.
The second half saw a resurgent Panthers (I am going to say it) 'claw' their way back into it. Once again through clever use of rolling subs their impact men, Sbu Thusi and Scotty Dyson, were sub-fuckin-blime. They scored an incredible try to get back into it, 12-10, and then after relentless pressure the Wildboys ran out of ‘get out of jail’ cards and Scotty D broke the line to score under the polls. 17-12 Panthers.
It was an epic game. The great thing about watching two evenly matched sides fight it out is that it can go any way. Unfortunately, it sometimes goes to an uncontrollable, like a ref missing something, or a straight judicious error from the ref, but sometimes it goes to something special like a solo try or a heart stopping drop-goal.
Bring on the World Cup…and more Carinus girls…
Tries of the Week: All game changers.
3rd place: The one that broke the horses back! Straight after the red card, the Nadoes struck back with a typical SA backline try. Straight up line speed pressure to force the loose pass that Lomu Winger Greg Gray (back from the Belly-dancing world champs) picked up to gallop home for the try that would win the game.
2nd place: Kopano-Clarendon was tighter than sitting next to a fat chick on a Jammie and a half break from Clarendon 13 JP was enough to give the ball to lightning fast fullback Thando that sped the ball over for the game winner.
1st place: Panthers were down 12-3 and unable to break the C-max Wildboys defence but quick ruck ball enable a runner to come off the stand offs shoulder, come around the corner and put winger Murray Beattie away on the outside. The work wasn’t done and Murray Mentz took it up quickly, held is line, looked at his inside support and advancing 1-on-1 defender and boldly chipped him, recovered and scored the try that turned the game.
Hit of the Week:
There were some big Chabalesque knock overs but the biggest hit came from the Barbarians scrumhalf, Mike Terrablanche who put in a monster front on hit on a bulky Nadoe runner.
Team of the Week:
Clarendon 8/10. College 7/10. Easterns 6/10. Shebeen Boys 7.5/10. Ubumbo 8/10. Cobras 7/10. Panthers 9/10. Wildboys 8.9/10. But the Nadoes get it. Not for the manner of their win but from the context. Beaten in the last outing against Ubumbo, the detractors were singing ‘the end to the Nadoes day’ but they faced adversity, pulled together and playing with 14 men stepped up and beat last years runners up for a momentous win. They stumbled, but maybe that just woke the sleeping giant. Watch this space.
See you on the Green Mile, but until then, see you in the Carinus hallways… Hifive.
Its the same guys every year. No where when there is no glory involved and a little bit of precipitation; but in full flight during the play-offs sporting his new (and for some reason always white) rugger boots, gelled hair and shoulder pads. He inevitably passes a ball behind his back and craps on his mate that doesn’t catch it but is more astute and reloading his depth when there is a ruck to hit. Who are you phantom player? Come do the hard work next year.
game and the contest ended up tight and hard, but rather bland. The Barbarians took terrible decisions sending the ball wide when it should have stayed tight, or keeping it tight when it should have gone wide and early. Nadoes on the other hand were very astute in their decision making but faltered when it came to finishing and building momentum. Barbarians flyhalf Mauro Ciochetti, had a main performance and held his side together with a great deal of balls, maturity and two wonderful place kicks off old school sand.
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