HOËRSKOOL Alberton played in the Alberton Derby against the old foe, Dinamika, on Allies’ home ground on May 12 in a game that could go a long way in determining the possible semi-final spots in the Golden Lions League.
Allies were keen to forget the last time these two teams played when they were controversially beaten by Dinamika in the semi-finals last year, who then went on to win the title in superb fashion against Linden.
Allies started the match at a fast pace.
They started running at Dinamika from the first set piece of the game and it was going to be a hard day for Namies who would have to tackle their hearts out.
The first points of the game came when the experienced hooker, Jimmy Dadswell, crashed over the line after a period of pressure was applied in the Dinamika 22m area. They defended admirably but eventually, the hole appeared. Francois Myburgh added the extra two points to leave the score at 7-0.
Shortly thereafter, Allies were back on the attack and it was number eight Sifundo Nkosi, who was my man of the match by a long way, who crashed over for his first try. The conversion was successful so the score had ticked on to 14-0.
Dinamika started getting some quality possession from the restart and went into the hosts’ 22m area in search of points. However, they turned the ball over and in true Allie fashion, the backs started running from deep in their own 22m area. This is a feature of their play this year. The willingness and also the confidence to run from deep. The Allies inside centre, PJ van der Merwe, broke free just outside the 22m area run although the support was there, ran all the way, out-pacing the defenders to score probably the try of the day. The conversion missed but at 19-0 Allies were now starting to get away.
They are also becoming a prudent team and when the opportunity presented itself to kick at poles, despite the scoreline, they took the three points to stretch the lead to 22-0.
In the second half, there was a penalty try awarded to Allies when left-wing Ruaan Lubbe was taken into touch with a high tackle just before he would have dived for the line. In a very tense derby game, this was the only instance where it looked like the players could get into a scrap. The referee, Quinten Pretorius, had a super game though, and consulted with his referee’s assistant before awarding the penalty try and a yellow card to the inside centre of Namies. I do feel that even if it wasn’t a penalty try, it warranted 10 minutes in the sin bin in any event.
Dinamika showed they are by no means a pushover and came back into the game from that point with two converted tries of their own by Xander Louw and Teagan Kriel with Matthew van der Merwe successfully converting. It was very good to see the forward pack making headway in a number of driving mauls which were well organised and it also showed that they have the potential to be a very good team despite being relatively young and short on the experienced side.
It was then that man of the match Sifundo Nkosi showed his class and managed to score a hatrick of tries to take the wind out of the Dinamika sales. He showed speed and ran 30 to 40m for most of his tries but his strength and explosiveness from a standing start were most impressive. The last try of the game was scored by none other than the captain, Jonathan Potgieter, himself and basically summed up the game.
Allies hoofed the ball upfield with the Namie player unable to gather cleanly. He fumbled the rolling and bouncing ball which gave time to the kicker to follow up. He eventually got the ball away to a teammate who was now under pressure from another Allie player. Tried to find a player in support but Potgieter read the situation and intercepted and ran the few metres and crashed over.
Dinamika can hold their head high. They never gave but to be honest, I think they came up against the best team in the competition. Allies just need to keep their feet on the ground. Namies just need to put it together in one game and they can trouble any team. They have shown patches this season of being the complete package too.
Anything can happen in a semi-final and final situation, so they are by no means out of it at all.
In the end, with the final score of 51-14, it was a very good game that was well refereed and certainly showed that the Golden Lions League trophy can definitely make a home in Alberton for a while to come.
Next week will be a crunch game as Dinamika travel to Linden in a repeat of last year’s final.
Go Namies and Allies. You make us very proud.
Also Read:
Hoërskool Dinamika neem leiding
Hoërskool Dinamika spog met “gladde bekke”
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