Thrilling wet rugby derby ends in a draw

In what has become the biggest and most anticipated match on the Boksburg rugby calendar since the ascension of United to the big league, there were, as was expected, multiple interesting points in the narrative leading up to this one.

To begin with, both teams were going into this one with contrasting fortunes after the opening week of league rugby. At first glance, it was easy to tip the visitors, who travelled to the Graveyard brimming with confidence following their memorable win over Brakpan during the opening day of the league a week earlier, as slight favourites.

United on the other hand, were coming in at the back of a humbling defeat to Springs and were under pressure to quickly correct their wrongs as they can’t afford to lose too much ground on the table, even at these early stages.

But they were at home, where they enjoy huge support and are extremely difficult to beat. This levelled the playing field against Boksburg, who started the season with a win.

The Graveyard is also foreign territory for the Owls.

That and the inevitable hostility that was going to come with it was never going to worry the Prince George Park outfit too much, as they were going there to face a team they completed the double on last season.

It’s these points that add excitement to the Boksburg-United narrative and heighten expectation – not to mention that the rain made it that much more interesting. And that’s exactly how this round-two match-up turned out to be.

Boksburg kicker PJ Beaukes, who has proven to be more important than ever to the Owls’ cause, silenced the crowd with the first six points on the board from two penalties.

But the first try went to the home side as loose forward Johan Vos dotted down before Cameron Lentoor put United in the lead for the first time following the conversion.

The lead was short-lived, however, as ill-discipline allowed Beaukes to give Boksburg a five-point lead from two consecutive penalties.

The Owls, however, would soon after be culprits of ill-discipline themselves as their prop Ettiene Louw saw yellow for a high tackle to give United a break.

This allowed United to regain momentum and they should’ve scored a well-worked try moments later, which involved a blinding back-hand pass from Reagan ‘Tshawe’ Fourie but it was adjudged forward – which halted the move.

The home side maintained the pressure and their persistence was soon rewarded as prop forward Shaun de Wet barged through.

Lentoor converted and gave the home side a slender 14-12 half-time lead.

Lentoor and Beaukes then exchanged penalties before the former added another three-pointer to give United a 20-15 lead.

With the score at 20-15 for a lengthy period of the second stanza, they couldn’t take full control of the match and were punished by Owls’ tighthead prop Gary Woolls, who maximised a period where the momentum was with his side.

Beukes converted to put his side’s noses 22-20 ahead.

The action wasn’t over as yet as Beaukes’ sixth penalty seemed to have stolen the game but Lentoor saved the day for United with a late unconverted touchdown in the corner.

IN A BOX

What the coaches had to say

Stephen Nel – United: I think the team played better than the previous games but we are not there yet. There are just small discipline issues that need attention and we will be fine.

I don’t think the draw tells the whole story of what happened on the field and I know we can beat Boksburg in the next round.

Marcell Fourie – Boksburg: Everyone is still positive and we see this as a learning curve, we just need to work.

Things can go for you or against you and this time it was straight in the middle. – @SabeloBoksburg