Clifton clinch narrow victory in bruising encounter

CLIFTON College hosted St Andrew’s School’s rugby team from Bloemfontein on Saturday afternoon at the Riverside Sports Club.

Based on results so far this season, the visitors came into this game as the favourites and even with home ground advantage, Clifton needed to bring their A game if they were to secure a vital win.

The Clifton team had multiple changes in the pack, four in total, but the forwards were boosted with news of Calvin Zandemela’s selection to the Craven Week team, a historic first for Clifton. The backline showed no changes from the previous week but there was one crucial change to the bench with Larkan replacing the injured Erskine.

Clifton won the toss and chose to play into a stiff North Easterly breeze. The boys from Bloem chose to ignore the wind at their backs and attacked with ball in hand. The visitors base their game on their strong pack and they have several robust ball carriers that get them on the front foot and provide a launch pad for their backs. The Clifton pack however was a match for the opposition and the strong defence of the home team denied the opposition momentum and forced them to start using the wind by kicking in behind the Clifton backs. Porter missed an early penalty chance before nailing his second kick to give Clifton the lead 3-0.

Then came a turning point in the game when Janek Edwards left the field. The Clifton outside centre (who is currently in excellent form) was having a sublime game and his departure caused some disarray in the Clifton backs. St Andrew’s seized the advantage and scored a close range try after a period of sustained pressure in the Clifton red zone. The St Andrew’s pivot converted to put the visitors 7-3 in front.

Larkan was brought on at wing and Webber was moved into 13. This reshuffled backline took a while to organise themselves defensively. Larkan made a crucial tackle to snuff out a St Andrew’s attack following an excellent line break and after that the backs’ defence settled and were untroubled for the remainder of the game.

Clifton started the second half and immediately used the wind to good effect to gain territorial advantage. The Clifton tight five gave the home team the edge at scrum time and No 8 Bothwell and scrummie Muller used this to good effect to launch some telling attacks. Substitute, Ryan Slotow, barged over from close range and Porter coolly added the extra points to give Clifton a 13-7 lead.

St Andrew’s are a quality outfit and refused to give up. They attacked from the kick-off, won a crucial turnover and then launched a series of meaningful attacks at the Clifton line. The home team defended resolutely but St Andrew’s kept the ball through multiple phases to finally work an opening and score a crucial try which brought them to within a point. The conversion went wide and the home team was left with a couple of nervous minutes to play.

Clifton’s nerves held and they kept the visitors out to claim a memorable win, 13 points to 12.