Port Natal Night Series: Port Natal beats Pinetown 22-0

Port Natal got their Night Series campaign off to a good start with a convincing win 22-0 win against Pinetown. However as a result of the final whistle being blown early, they missed out on the opportunity to earn a 4-try bonus point which could prove costly later in the series.

Pinetown had a nice big frontrow to anchor their scrums and add weight to the breakdowns. This served them really well as they were not dominated at the collisions. The Highways team had a couple of good passages of play, where they retained possession through a few forwards driving the ball up phases and made ground. Once they get into their regular season, this style of play using their bigger players is bound to pay off handsomely against some of the Tier-2 schools they come up against. However to do well against the level of competition at the Night Series, Pinetown will have to work a lot harder on an all-round game.

Rivals who watched Port Natal during this match probably would not have learned much about the team’s true potential. Porties showed Pinetown a lot of respect in their play, which was very conservative and lacked urgency during the first half. It was a structured approach though and I thought it might have been a ploy by Porties to not relieve to much of themselves ahead of more difficult games in the days and weeks to come.  However once the second half kicked off, it was clear that the coaching staff had not been happy with the first half effort. Immediately noticeable was an upping of the tempo by the home team.

Porties have two outstanding attacking players in outside centre Karl Terblanche and right wing Chestwin Gaffley. On their inside there are also a couple of good distributors to put the quick players away. However to maximise on their abilities, the game plan has to call for quicker and cleaner ball and perhaps a bit more of a higher risk approach. For the former to apply, their forwards are going to have to work a lot harder at the breakdowns.

Even though Porties didn’t look to be near their best, they were still easily the better of the two teams.
First points on the night came via flyhalf Carlo Gresse who landed a penalty. Then following a really good build up Crestwin, another player who looks worthy of KZN representation (if he can get passed South Durban trials which has been a stumbling block for Port Natal players like Springbok Marcell Coetzee in the past) got over for the hosts’ first try, that Carlo converted for a 10-0 lead at halftime.

Inside centre Estienne Verster burst though from close range in the second half to help extend the lead to 17-0 with Carlo adding another 2-points. The Porties forwards laid the platform for the third try, which again showed a reluctance to go wide, when scrumhalf Frans Janse van Niewenhuis forced his way over near the fringe of the ruck on the goal-line.
22-0 is how it ended. The game had to be blown early. A red card had been issued a few minutes earlier and although the skirmish that followed was not serious, the referee believed that the game was becoming too heated and had the potential to get out of control.

In all three A-team games on the day there were incidents of innocent pushing and shoving with no harm being done but what did threaten to turn each harmless case into fight wasn’t the  actions of those initially involved but rather other players from both sides rushing in to supposedly defuse the situation, getting loud and then some of them also getting into a big of a shoving contest.