Owls suffer a loss to Klerksdorp
The final score was 29-21 for Klerksdorp, which was preceded by a 15-0 half-time reading in favour of the visitors.
It was encouraging to see the decibel unit working for once at Prince George Park on May 18, albeit coming from the away side’s patrons and players as TW Boksburg Rugby Club hosted Klerksdorp in a Volcano Trophy tie.
The iconic venue, which owes its status to its rich sporting history, has been made to seem like a forlorn park in recent times with bums on seats dwindling by the week.
Another encouraging sign was the Owls’ rallying act towards the end of the encounter in what was only going to serve in making the scoreboard look respectable, and it worked, in a game which was otherwise controlled by the away side as they made their presence felt both on the field of play and on the grandstands.
Klerksdorp suffocated Boksburg into submission, enjoying the lion’s share of ball possession and winning the territory battle – which ultimately led to their comfortable win despite Boksburg’s much-improved showing in the second stanza.
From the kick-off, they quickly demonstrated why they were tipped as heavy favourites during the build-up of the tie and why Boksburg coach Francois Erasmus spoke highly of them.
Tactically astute, they had a plan which was to neautralise Boksburg’s physicality by starving the hosts of the ball and constantly pinning Erasmus’ men in their own half. Deploying their back three at the back at all times, the visitors ensured that whenever the Owls turned the ball over and kicked to escape, either of Klerksdorp’s back three players was always on hand to re-collect and send the ball back to Boksburg’s half – mostly via counter-attack using their quick backs to expose holes – which lead to one of their four tries which secured them a bonus point.
“We knew they were going to be physical,” said Klerksdorp coach Phillip van Rensburg.
“So we tried to tire them out from set-pieces, especially during scrums.
“A coach can never be 100 per cent happy,” he continued. We didn’t make use of the quality ball we got and I wasn’t happy with our wings who knocked the ball on at crucial times but all in all, it was a good performance.”
There were some beautiful tries on show, with scintillating backline play from both sets of teams carving each other open at times – on occasion leading to brilliant scores.
Boksburg mentor, Erasmus, said: “I think we didn’t play particularly well in the first-half; second-half, our confidence improved. We had a few soft moments in the first-half and Klerksdorp did well – they beat Springs so that shows you how well they’re doing.
“We were tactically poor, particularly in the first-half: you cannot leave any balls laying around because you will be punished.”
Responding to a quiz on his half-time talk, which apparently influenced the Boksburg XV, the trainer continued: “I told the boys to play tight and kick more and they showed some good character by adapting – and to me – that’s the most important thing.”
Boksburg’s backline trio of Prince Mofokeng, Henry Pike and Brandon Swart scored the tries for the Owls – with the latter two converting one and two respectively.
For the visitors, midfielder Craig Pienaar, who spotted a Lionel Mapoe celebration on his way to his second try of the game, and also plays in the Lions and Boks star’s position, lock Pro Ntsoko and tighthead prop Fanie Vermaak registered their names in the try column.
Fly-half Pieter Strydom added a single penalty and only missed one conversion.
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