The Benoni Northerns Storm’s first team fought back from an early seven-point deficit to beat the Elsburg Eagles 15-10 in the Valke Merlin League at the Northerns main field on July 13.
There weren’t many points scored in this nail-biting affair but it was the home side on the better side of the scoreboard when the final whistle was blown.
It came much to the relief of the home fans who watched their team struggle to penetrate their visitors’ defence.
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Elsburg returned to Germiston with lots of positives from this encounter.
Despite being a man down twice in the match, they were resolute, fought for every ball and pushed their hosts to the brink.
The visitors looked poised to pull off an upset when they took a 7-0 lead into half-time.
However, Northerns fought their way back into the contest to extend their winning streak to three matches, including back-to-back victories against East Rand United.
Seetebosigo Mokhine and Shandon Mays crossed over for the Storm while playmaker Bradin Anderson converted Mokhine’s try and added three more points through a penalty.
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Scrum-half PJ Beukes scored all of Elburg’s points, first crossing over for a five-pointer and converting it, before adding a penalty to add to his tally.
The match swung from end to end early as both teams found space and made breaks but tight defending from either side kept the scores level.
It took until deep in the first half for the deadlock to be broken and even that came against the run of play, with Beukes going on the other side of Mokhine to touch down and give his team a 7-0 lead into the break.
The hosts had to wait until early into the second half to get onto the scoreboard. Mokhine broke free in the middle of the park before side-stepping his marker and running in unchallenged.
Anderson converted to level the scores before scoring a penalty to hand Northerns the lead for the first time in the match.
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However, Elsburg kept pushing and eventually found the equalizer through Beukes’ boot, when the scrum-half successfully placed his penalty in between the posts.
The result was sealed by Mays when he scored a remarkable try late in the match to hand his side an unlikely victory following Elsburg’s fighting spirit and well-executed game plan.
Scorers
Northerns:
Tries: Seetebosigo Mokhine and Shandon Mays. Conversion and penalty: Bradin Anderson
Elsburg: Try: PJ Beukes. Conversion and penalty: Beukes
