There wasn’t much to talk about in the first half except the fact that the Pumas dominated every department and scored two unanswered tries. The only positive that KZN could take out of the first half was a long range penalty from Joubert who got it over from his own 10m line. Pumas led 14 – 3 at the break.
The 2nd half started the same way the first half finished, with four minutes into the second half the Pumas kicked the ball to the KZN half and a miscommunication between Thobejane and Bredell allowed the ball to bounce and find touch inside the KZN 22m. The throw found their huge 8th man at the end of the lineout and he scored with ease to put the Pumas 19 – 3 ahead.
Whatever Grant Bell said to the boys seems to have worked as KZN came back to score 19 unanswered points. It all started with Buthelezi breaking the Pumas line before offloading to Bredell who ran down the wing to score a brilliant try in the corner. The try was not converted by Joubert. The score at this point was 19 – 8.
The young Sharks carried on putting pressure on the Pumas and were awarded when they got a penalty inside the Pumas half. KZN went for the corner and won their own lineout. They formed a maul and Jordan Martin dived over in the corner for KZN’s second try. The try was converted by Joubert which took the score to 19 – 15.
The Pumas thought they had done enough but with 3 minutes left Mazwi got the ball and broke through the Pumas defence and fell a couple of metres short and the KZN forwards did enough to protect that ball before scrumhalf Khanyile got the ball and went over for KZN’s third try. Joubert converted the try and the final score was 22 – 19 to the young Sharks.
Next up for KZN is Eastern Province.
Day 1 Results:
Border CD 22 – Griquas CD 25
Blue Bulls 17 – Griffons 5
Leopards 20 – Namibia 0
Border 15 – Boland 23
Valke 7 – Cheetahs 29
SWD 18 – Eastern Province 24
Golden Lions XV 18 – Zimbabwe 21
Golden Lions 19 – Western Province 21
Limpopo Blue Bulls 54 – Griquas 10
Well done boys!! Hope you pull through against EP tomorrow and that a number of you make Sa U16. HP squad!
Geez what a game this must have been. We looked dead and buried and somehow dug deep. That takes quite a bit of character to bounce back when the chips are down. Well done to the boys. And thanks to Pius for the report.