Super festival of rugby at Bosman
Provincial rugby returned to Brakpan, dubbed the ‘heart of Valke rugby’, on May 26 when the SuperSport Rugby Challenge festival came to the Bosman Stadium.
The televised SuperSport Rugby Challenge blends both club and provincial rugby in an exciting festival that aims to bring competitive provincial rugby back to the more rugby starved areas of the country and reinvigorate a provincial rugby competition that previously struggled to draw the crowds to the big stadiums.
It was a great pity that the home club didn’t feature on the day, but that didn’t stop many passionate rugby fans from around Brakpan and Ekurhuleni from taking advantage of the free entry at the gate and filling up the Bosman grandstands.
Development club members from throughout the Valke Rugby Union also came out in numbers to witness the rugby action while credit must go to the hosts Brakpan Rugby Club for their excellent organisation of the day.
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The opening match on Sunday saw the Valke Rugby Union’s Peregrine League ever-progressing side East Rand United up against the Blue Bulls Union’s Centurion Rugby Club in a Volcano Super Cup Series clash.
It was one of those epic cross-border club clashes that could have gone either way and was also a great advertisement for club rugby.
Reiger Park’s East Rand United, fresh from beating Gold Cup champions Rustenburg Impala the weekend prior, were pipped 57-53 by the visiting Centurion club in one of those end-to-end games.
There was naturally great interest in the SuperSport Rugby Challenge match that followed between the Gauteng giants, the Vodacom Blue Bulls and the Xerox Golden Lions XI.
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It was the men in the blue jerseys who had their fans cheering most when they ran rampant on the Brakpan turf, thrashing their provincial neighbours 62-24 (halftime 41-12).
The final fixture of the day saw the host union the Valke go up against the Northern Free State’s Griffons in their SuperSport Rugby Challenge North Section match.
The Valke outlasted the Griffons to win 41-31 (half-time 31-7).
It was a fitting result for their skipper Shane Kirkwood who celebrated a century of caps for the East Rand team.
The management of the Valke Rugby Union thanked the Brakpan community who turned out in full force.
The Valke will return to Bosman stadium on June 1 at 3pm to face the Vodacom Blue Bulls in the sixth round of the SuperSport Rugby Challenge.
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