In one of the most eagerly awaited matches of the Kearsney Festival, Affies trounced Selborne 34-12.
The match, which was refereed by Craig Joubert, who was in control of the World Cup final three years ago, got off to a scintillating start when Affies fullback Eduan Keyter scored two early tries, followed by another soon after from centre Tiaan Schullian. Pieter Coetzer added two conversions, opening up a 19-0 lead.
Selborne, the only visiting team to participate in every Kearsney festival since 2008, dominated the second quarter of the match, but were unable to break the Affies defence. But they opened their account early in the second half with a unconverted try from wing Tristian Coetzer.
With 10 minutes to go, Selborne displayed some brilliant running rugby, forcing their way over the Affies tryline. Flyhalf Morgan Steyn added the extras, setting up an exciting finale with the score on 19-12.
But as both sides started to run the ball, gaps started to open up on defence and tempers started to flare. Coetzer added three more points to Affies' score with a penalty and tries by Henco Jordaan and Keyter sealed the deal for Affies, with the hat-trick hero Keyter named Man of the Match.
'Eduan played exceptionally well. He could have created more tries, but a few times he chose to hold on to the ball,' coach Sakkie van der Walt told SARugbymag.co.za. 'We controlled the ball in the first 20 minutes, went to sleep midway through the game, then fired in the last 10 again. That can't happen in our coming games or we'll get punished.'
Day 1 results:
Kearsney 25 HTS Middelburg 31
Framesby 16 Monument 21
Westville 41 Nico Malan 10
Selborne 12 Affies 34
Glenwood 31 Dale 17
Grey College 26 EG Jansen 8
Day 2 fixtures:
Selborne vs Framesby (9:30)
HTS Middelburg vs Nico Malan (10:45)
Kearsney vs Dale (12:00)
Glenwood vs Dr EG Jansen (13:45)
Grey College vs Westville (14:30)
Affies vs Monument (15:45)
Day 3 fixtures:
Nico Malan vs Dale (9:30)
Glenwood vs Framesby (10:45)
Westville vs Selborne (12:00)
Affies vs HTS Middelburg (13:15)
Grey College vs Monument (14:30)
Kearsney vs Dr EG Jansen (15:45)
Photo: Kearsney College
