Wheels come off for CCC Brakpan Rugby Club
The local side had a tough time with some of their key players missing from the field.
CCC Brakpan Rugby Club was well beaten 52-9 by Springs at the Bosman Stadium on Saturday. A solid first-half performance by Brakpan was followed by a complete collapse in the next 40 minutes.
Brakpan lost three of their forwards, including captain Franco Booysens, to illness on Friday and this did not help their cause as they went against one of the strongest packs in the Valke Peregrine League.
The final score, however, does not tell how well the home side started. Brakpan was able to keep Springs’ forwards at bay in the opening period. They led 9-7 at halftime.
The proverbial wheels came off in the second half when the opposition’s powerful pack got the upper hand and starved hosts of ball possession.
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Springs went on to score 45 unanswered points as Brakpan’s skilful backline could not do much without the ball.
The defeat was a bitter pill to swallow for the local side’s supporters but chairperson Harry Nieuwenhuis chose to look forward.
“We must put it behind us and just plan ahead,” he said.
“It is not all doom and gloom as we can take our performance in the first half as a positive and look to build from it.”
They will face Boksburg Rugby Club at home on Saturday. Following such a heavy defeat the first team will want to show their character by keeping their heads up.
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They will know that there is still a lot of rugby to be played this season and qualifying for the Valke semi-finals is still very much a possibility.
“It’s a team effort. We’ll have to get the guys together,” said the chairperson.
Nieuwenhuis pointed out that missing some of their key players made things difficult for them.
“It’s very difficult when you train all week and then Friday afternoon they’re not all there. The guys coming in had been training with the second team,” he said.
“It makes things hectic with the line outs and different calls not working from a team perspective. The whole game plan suffered because of it.”
