Watch: Boksburg Rugby Club celebrate a much needed win
Boksburg had a tough start to the league campaign, which included two damaging defeats by next door rivals East Rand United.
The TW Boksburg Rugby Club produced a near-perfect first-half performance to kill-off visitors Kempton Park in what was a redeeming 50-10 victory for the home side at Prince George Park on May 12.
The Owls took an all but unassailable 30-point lead in the Valke Peregrine League clash and secured their bonus point going into the half-time break.
By then the scoreboard read 40-10 thanks to tries by Mitchell Lingenfelder, captain Johan Labuschagne, Deon Smit, Kyle Lewis, Danie Schultz and Willem Botes.
Fly-half Henry Pike, whose boot was on target, converted five of his side’s six first-half scores.
The visitors tried to keep their apparent superior hosts at bay with some big hits at stages but try as they might, the wounded Owls were ruthless in exposing open gaps in the offence and were not going to be denied.
It could have easily been a worse reading on the scoreboard for Kempton if it weren’t for weak tackling from the Owls side.
The win was desperately needed by coach Francois Erasmus’ side – as the respected trainer admitted himself – following a tough start to the campaign which included two damaging defeats by next door rivals East Rand United.
Erasmus’ side had come at the back of three damaging losses to this year’s title frontrunners Springs and ERU (2), including an early setback in the season opener against Vereeniging. In fact, this was their first win in the campaign – and what a way to do it.
Veteran utility back Dirkie Burger and number 12 Damian Diedericks added gloss to the scoreboard as they took it to 50 with respective tries in the second stanza.
Asked to share his thoughts on the much-improved performance, Erasmus said: “First of all, we needed that win to put our campaign back on track. The first-half performance was very good where we scored 40 points to take a 40-10 half-time lead.
“The second-half performance was okay but a lot of ill-discipline let us down. The yellow cards were detrimental to our cause but we addressed the problem after the game. So all in all, I’m pleased.”
On his side’s overall assessment up to the fifth week of the season, which was the Kempton clash, the former Brakpan tactician commented: “We started off by playing two of the best teams (ERU and Springs) this season. We competed in the first half in all those games but in the second half, our fitness let us down.
“We’re doing well in the scrums and line-outs and we believe we can make the play-offs.”
The Owls will be hoping to carry on with mission resurrection when they host NWU Vaal Pukke on Saturday (May 26).
Scorers:
TW Boksburg
Tries – Mitchell Lingenfelder, Johan Labuschagne (c), Deon Smit, Kyle Lewis, Danie Schultz, Willem Botes, Dirkie Burger and Damian Diedericks
Conversions – Henry Pike (5)
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