On Saturday 23rd February the mighty “Whites” set off for Somerset East to play in the Gill Sports Day. Our opponents on the day was Hoërskool Cillié from Port Elizabeth, who are known for being physical up front and elusive at the back. The boys prepared really well in the week as we knew this would be a tough contest. The fixture was scheduled for 14:00 in very hot conditions.
We started the game very well putting a number of phases together, showing maturity as we held on to the ball and did not panic. After fourteen minutes of continuous attack Cillie’s defenses were finally breached by Cleathon Koeberg who crossed over the line with great strength and body positioning. The conversion was unsuccessful. We continued to apply loads of pressure as we dominated possession and territory for most of the game. Ten minutes after scoring our first try, Jaden Brotherton burst through the defensive line and evaded seven Cillié players before linking up with Brett Amsterdam who ran a good support line to give off the final pass to Bladen Jacobs who dotted down for an amazing team try. The conversion was unsuccessful and we went into the break 10-0 up.
The second half was very similar to the first in the sense that we dominated possession and territory. We attacked wave after wave, but unfortunately didnt convert all the opportunities we had into points. Fifteen minutes into the second half, we were awarded a penalty try for cynical play by Cillié who caught the ball in an offside position as we were about to score. This increased our score to 17-0 which ended up being the final result.
Every player in the squad got some game time which is the purpose of pre-season fixtures. All in all the boys delivered a decent performance in our first game of the season.
