Craven Week 2013: Day 2
DATE, TIME | TEAM | TEAM | DETAILS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tue, 09 July 2013 | |||||
09h30 | EP CD | 31 | 10 | Leopards | A surprisingly one-sided match in the first half. The emphasis seemed to be on cohesion. The EPCD are predominately from just 2 achieving schools – St Andrews and Marlow – making it a lot easier for the team to gel. The Leopards don’t have a high flying team and their strength appears to be from drawing players many different schools and bonding them. In the first half the EPCD structures and understanding was better. They produced good carries and generated a lot of go-forward. Their counter-ruck was also very good and in flyhalf Jason Vers they found a player to dictate play and make things happen. The Leopards looked far more composed in the second half. They protected ball and attacked off the fringes. At 21-10 they missed 2 crucial opportunities to score a try which might have changed the complexion of the game. Instead EPCD repelled them and scored 2 late tries. |
11h00 | Griquas CD | 51 | 0 | Border CD | One-way traffic. One really has to feel for the Border CD players and also wonder what the point is. For the sake of quality and achieving the desired objective it’s time to replace the Border CD with a second Western Province team |
12h30 | Valke | 37 | 37 | Griffons | Quiet an incredible game of rugga. The Griffons caused a major surprise by taking the match to the highly rated Valke team. Good well-drilled phase play set the platform for continued attacks. It really looked like the Valke had underestimated the Griffons. At halftime the Griffons led 23-10. The Valke lifted their standard of play in the 2nd half. Reduced the deficit to 23-17 before the Griffons capitalised on Valke mistakes to extend the lead to 37-24 with just a few minutes left. Somehow the Valke managed to score 2 unconverted tries and a penalty at the death to level the score. Amazingly there was still time to play after this scoring and Griffons man of the match Shaun Reynolds missed a last ditch penalty to win it. Marco Holmes of the Valke impressed with strong ball carries. |
14h00 | Lions | 34 | 27 | SWD | |
15h30 | EP | 21 | 32 | Free State |