Hillcrest Villagers take on log leaders

THE Land Rover Durban Hillcrest Villagers first and second XV travelled to Sydenham on Saturday to play log leaders, Fidelity Security Jaguars.

In the opening match, Villagers’ second team started strongly, using their big forwards to dominate their smaller but faster opponents, opening the scoring after some excellent lineout drives to lead 7-0.

Jaguars fought back almost immediately, running the ball in their inimitable fashion, but Villagers’ defence held strong until an overload on the right saw their winger go over in the corner 7-5. The match was living up to expectations, and it was Villagers who started to dominate, scoring a great try after some very good phases of play. After converting again the score was 14-5 at half-time.

The second half swung in favour of the Jaguars, then play moved backwards and forwards as both teams fought for the precious win. With 10 minutes left Jaguars applied pressure, keeping Villagers pinned in their half, although an excellent break-out saw Villagers stream down the pitch, passing into the Jaguars 22 only to throw a fifty-fifty pass, which resulted in a turn-over, and Jaguars working their way back to apply pressure on the tiring Villagers defence, which finally succumbed to a Jaguars running move that saw them score and convert to lead for the first time 14-17. Villagers threw everything at Jaguars in the last three minutes, but they stood strong and finished the stronger to deserve their win.

Hillcrest Villagers first XV went up against the Jaguars, who have had an undefeated season this far. The men from Hillcrest were building on a head of steam after a slow start to their campaign with four successive wins in a row. The game proved to be an intense highlight of the quality of rugby the first division has to offer.

Jaguars quickly set the pace of the game and scored within the first five minutes after a turn-over ball and the bounce of the ball going in favour of the home team.

With Jaguars having the bigger of the packs they dominated the set pieces, which suited the men from Hillcrest’s game plan to take on the undefeated home team, and scored a brilliant try through Stephan Bothma, who also converted.

Another brilliant try from Hillcrest backline Man of the Match, Gerhard Botha, which was unconverted, saw the men from Hillcrest take a 12-7 lead. Jaguars clearly felt the fight being taken to them by taking the points rather than the expected tap-and-go they usually deploy.

Both sides threw everything at each other and traded penalties, which saw Hillcrest leading 18-13.

With seconds left on the clock, the Jaguars, who had been camped in Hillcrest’s 22, eventually broke the defence and the hearts of the men from Hillcrest and scored, but were unable to convert, leaving the scores tied at 18-18.

Man of the Match of the forwards went to Wesley Volek, who returned to his preferred position of hooker.

Hillcrest now has a deserved bye before taking on Ballito Dolphins away on 20 June, while Stephan Bothma, Gerhard Botha and Tommy Bezuidenhout will be in action for the DRSU Bisons at the weekend.