Paarl Boys’ High got their season back on track with a hard-fought 22-17 victory over Boland Landbou in the mud at Paardeberg field on Saturday. THEO GARRUN reports.
It was Boishaai’s second win in a row, after consecutive losses, and they showed on Saturday that they must still be counted among the very best in the land.
Boland Landbou have not won this derby clash in the past nine years and they were hoping this would be their year, especially when the weather turned wet, levelling things out.
Boland looked the better side in the first half: they had most of the possession and scrumhalf Gavin Mills kicked intelligently to keep them in the right half of the field.
They were first on the scoreboard when impressive fullback Darren Hendricks ran a great line to breach the defence and threw an outrageous dummy to go over near the posts. Mills supplied the conversion.
Boishaai equalised through centre Quan Horn, who forced his way over after his forwards had mauled the ball up close before releasing it. Trent Silverton converted, and was on hand to convert again two minutes later after wing Carlu Uys touched down after a good kick and chase.
That made it 14-12 at the break, with the home side still very much in the game.
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After the break, the big Boishaai forwards began to make their presence felt. They dominated in the scrums and severely disrupted the Boland lineouts, meaning that the home side never saw as much of the ball as they had in the first period.
Boishaai stretched their lead to five points via a Silverton penalty. Boland then edged their way up towards the Paarl line via some intelligent kicking by Mills, before Boishaai messed up a lineout close to their tryline, which resulted in captain Schalk Bezhuidenhout crashing over to level the scores at 17-17.
Boishaai went straight back on the attack and laid siege on the Boland line for an extended period. They lost the ball over the line, had a try disallowed and were penalised for obstruction, with Boland defending like Trojans all the while.
The backline had to break eventually, however, and Paarl captain Adrian Alberts rounded off an inspirational personal performance by getting the winning try.
There were still 15 minutes to go, but the rain came back in earnest, reducing the final minutes to an arm wrestle, which Boishaai won to keep their record against Boland intact, and get their season firmly back on the rails.
Paarl Boys’ High – Tries: Quan Horn, Carlu Uys, Adrian Alberts. Conversions: Trent Silverton (2). Penalty: Silverton.
Boland Landbou – Tries: Darren Hendricks, Gavin Mills, Schalk Bezhuidenhout. Conversion: Mills.
