Brakpan Rugby Club kicked off the Valke Peregrine League in impressive fashion when they beat Vereeniging 41-34 at Bosman Stadium on Saturday.
By putting the visitors on the back foot, the local side made an early impact. They raced to a 26-8 halftime lead after playing their opponents out of the park in the opening period.
Brakpan did enough to close out the game in the second half despite a slightly nervy ending.
The hosts ran in six tries courtesy of Brandon Swart (two), Thinus Ueckeman, Ruben Beytell, Tjaart Scheepers and GP Bezuidenhout.
Beytell kicked over four conversions and a penalty. With the race to make it into the top four to book a semi-final spot, this win gives Brakpan an advantage.
This was the second time the Bosman Stadium-based side went against Vereeniging after losing to the visitors in the final of the Presidents Cup.
Unlike when they faced each other a month earlier, this time, Brakpan held on to the lead and closed out the game.
“We all know what happened against them last time,” Brakpan’s vice chairperson Sarel Korf said before the match.
“A lot of work has been put in since then. We have had time to fix the mistakes from that match.”
Earlier in the day, Brakpan’s U21 side beat Vereeniging 41-19 after leading 17-6 at halftime. The second team narrowly lost 26-29 after being 26-8 in the lead in the first half.
Brakpan will look to keep the winning momentum going when they take the short trip to Boksburg on Saturday.
They know they must stay focused on that fixture before they have a bye the following week.
Brakpan will have two weekends off after they face Boksburg. The first weekend is the result of East Rand United suffering relegation because that was the match they would have had.
The next was a scheduled bye. They will take on North West University at home on June 22, followed by Springs at home on June 29.
That will be the end of the first-round league matches.
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