Owls win their first game of 2020

The Boksburg Rugby Club’s senior side finally got some rugby under their belts with their first taste of 80 minutes happening in the Limpopo province as the team travelled to take on Thabazimbi on February 22.

The Owls, excited to be led by new coach Lukas van der Schyff and led out for the first time by new captain Henry Pike, who was inspirational on the day, edged the hosts 28-21.

The skipper, who converted all of his side’s four tries and completed a 100 per cent rate with his boot, finished with an overall personal haul of 13 points, including a try of his own.

He joined winger Brandon Swart, Takkie van Staden and Joe Meyer on the try-scoring column.

Quizzed on his takeaway following his first game as head coach, van der Schyff responded: “It was actually a difficult one. Our fitness is not where we want it to be and it’s a completely different environment playing there. The humidity was extremely high. It was hot. I could see some of our guys battle out there.

“We started off very slowly. They put our scrums under pressure, which cost us solid first-phase ball. They were very disruptive, but we outweighed them by quite a lot, so the only way they could play was in a loose game.

“The moment things started getting into structure, you could see the rust – it was actually our first contact session.

“It was a difficult one for the guys, but there were quite a few good things. We should’ve killed them off, but we let them come back in the end. We were up 28-14 for quite a long time, but that was our own fault because of unnecessary penalties at vital places, not falling back fast enough etc.

“I saw quite a few new good combinations, but it’s still a thing of guys finding each other. We went with 26-odd guys, but left some pivot ball players behind because of various reasons. But they will make a huge difference when they come back.

“Things will get better as we progress, but yes, unfortunately match fitness is still a big one. We are working on that.”