The Owls won 18-17 after trailing 14-7 at the half-time break.
There was added significance about the triumph, as it marked the Owls’ first league win of the season.
“It felt great,” said Boksburg skipper Travis Howell, on the side’s first win.
“I was proud of the boys… a month ago we lost to the same side by 43-5, so this was a big win for our young team.”
Asked what the team did differently, compared to their previous games, when they endured a winless run, Howell replied: “We defended well and we played better as a team.
”We still, however, made some stupid mistakes, but fixed them up quickly.”
His coach, Stephen Nel, echoed the captain’s views.
“We did a few things differently, like training harder and calling our set-pieces differently; everything came down to the home ground advantage and using it well.
“There’s only that much I can do and that’s training the guys hard and instructing them, but what happens on the pitch is up to them.
”I don’t do the passes on the field, I don’t do line-outs – they do. It was all up to them and they executed the moves.”
The Owls got off to a firing start with lock Danie Schultz scoring a well-worked try in the corner within the first 10 minutes, shortly after the home side had a try disallowed.
With a visibly overwhelmed Vaal Reefs side struggling to settle early on the Owls looked to run at every attacking opportunity and could have gained more than their seven points during their good spell, but handling errors and mistimed passes let them down.
Having weathered the early Boksburg storm and with the score reading 7-0 in favour of Nel’s men, the visitors soon settled and produced an attacking onslaught of their own in search of the equalising try as they camped in and around the Owls’ 22-m area.
But the home side’s defence remained resolute.
Vaal Reefs persisted, however, and after numerous phases and restarts, the pressure finally told as the visitors replied with their own converted try.
The visitors took the lead for the first time soon after, from a counter-attack, to go into the half-time recess in front.
With fears of yet another defeat for the Owls lingering, Howell and his troops dug deep and two high-pressure penalties from PJ Beukes in the second-half and a Berend Peens try were enough to see off the Vaal Reefs scare. – @SabeloBoksburg
