Owls so nearly snatches victory from the jaws of defeat
It was a big loss for the Boksburg outfit considering what was at stake.
The North-West University put TW Boksburg’s play-off hopes in jeopardy following their 25-22 upset in their Valke Peregrine League tie in Vanderbijlpark on May 11.
The Owls’ causes was not helped by a controversial decision right at the death of the encounter, when full-back Martin van der Merwe’s try was ruled out because of an alleged forward pass during the build-up.
Desperately chasing the game during the dying minutes, the Owls thought they had stolen the game from their opponents with van der Merwe’s sucker punch but the official ruled it out – much to the frustration and heartbreak of the Owls camp.
Take nothing away from the hosts, however, who, looking at the bigger picture, were deserved winners. They punished the Owls on every opportunity with the visitors struggling to protect their ball at set-piece time, particularly at line-out time.
Francois Erasmus’ men also took forever to get into the game, trailing 15-3 at the break.
When the Advertiser spoke to Erasmus following the two sets of teams’ reverse encounter last month, which the Owls comfortably won 43-26, Erasmus mentioned that the hosts would be a completely different challenge – and so it proved.
The Prince George Park tactician was again quizzed on his thoughts of the game to which he replied: “Our biggest problem was our line-outs, we lost about nine line-outs and we had to play catch-up rugby for about 60 minutes.
“We scored a few good tries in the last 20 minutes and we came back strong but the first 60 was a disaster, that’s where we lost the game,” he said, before commenting on the event that marred what was an exciting game of rugby.
“There was a very controversial call at the end where we scored a try which was ruled off for a forward pass, none of the other officials saw it and their (NWU) wing kept on chasing our full-back which showed that not even he (the chaser) saw it. I was very very angry at that point but that’s how the game goes.”
Owls captain and scrum-half Johan Labuschagne echoed his manager’s views.
“I won’t ever say a referee was bad but in my opinion, that was a poor call as it wasn’t a forward pass and we would’ve been under the posts and sealed the game.
“We had a really bad start, we were 3-15 down at half-time and all of a sudden, we clawed our way back into the game – we let it slip, they scored and that’s when the alleged forward pass happened and we lost.
“All-in-all it was a good game, the guys showed some great character, especially in defence where we’ve been poor but the guys manned-up and made their reads. I was proud of that, it was really good to see.”
In-form Owls midfielder Damian Diedericks scored and forward Kallie Grung grabbed a brace. Kicker Henry Pike slotted over two tries and a single penalty.
Other results:
Second team: NWU 24-12 TW Boksburg; u-21: NWU 75-19 TW Boksburg
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