Gordon’s Bay Pioneers (GBP) recorded four wins in four games in the Pool B regional tournament when they triumphed over Northerns RFC by 22-5 in an arguably one-sided encounter played at the Gordon’s Bay Naval Grounds on Saturday 26 August.
Also known as The Leopards, the GBP first team started strongly and dominated possession, but struggled with their kicking on the day. The home team opened the scoring in the seventh minute when Bradley Williams crossed over the whitewash. Justin Daniels missed the conversion. After some hard work GBP managed to touch down again in the 28th minute courtesy of a try by Wihan Kotze. But again the Leopards missed a conversion kick, and went into the break with a 10-0 advantage.
After the restart GBP continued with the same intensity as the first half and it paid off when Cheslin Julius touched down for a five-pointer in the 54th minute, which Williams was unable to convert (15–0).
In the 65th minute GBP scored their fourth try of the game, thanks to Karel Stevens who surged across the tryline. This time Williams made no mistake and slotted over the conversion (22–0).
Northerns played with some purpose in the closing stages of the game and reaped the reward by crossing over for a try in the 70th minute, which also proved to be the last points added to the scoreboard of the game that ended 22-5.
The Leopards sit comfortably and three points clear at the top of the Pool B log standings. There are four pools in the regional competition and at the end of the pool stages the top two teams of each pool go through to a quarter final play-off, and then the semis and final. What makes this tournament interesting is that all three teams of each club compete individually, so there are trophies for the third, second and first teams, not just for the club.
The Top 9 promotion also provided some fireworks as Strand United clinched a 22-19 victory over Atlantis RFC at the Abattoir Sports Grounds. Tries were scored by Yusuf Arnold, Moenier Davids and Lutfi Ruiters, while Ebrahim Pedro slotted over two conversion and a penalty. Strand United are top of the Top 9 log with four more games to go.
In Super League B, All Saints RFC celebrated an impressive win when they handed SK Walmers their first loss of the season in a 20–17 victory at Greenpoint Track. In a tightly contested match which earned praise from the opposition, a last-minute penalty decided the win for the Olla Boys. Scorers included tries by Aiden Januarie and Marco Anderson, as well as two conversions and two penalties by Anderson.
Strand RC struggled on the road once again in their Super League B encounter, going down to Langa by 20-26. Scorers for the Strand outfit included tries by O’Brien Fredericks (2) and Ashwin Isaacs, and a conversion and penalty by Nathan Fransman.
In Super League A, St George’s RFC suffered defeat at the hands of False Bay, going down 14-31 in their final league fixture.
Scorers for St George’s included tries by Ronaldo Daniels and Bradley Mentoor and two conversions by Curtley Hendrikse.
