Diggers Rugby Club have a tough season opener against Wanderers
PRAEGVILLE – Local rugby club takes positives from tough season openers.
Diggers Rugby Club can still take some positives from its tough season opener in the Pirates Grand Challenge.
Diggers hosted Wanderers Rugby Club for five league matches on an overcast afternoon on 6 April. The fields in Praegville were abuzz with U19, U21, 3rd, 2nd and 1st teams playing.
Diggers played in the second division of the Golden Lions Rugby Union last year and earned promotion to the Pirates Grand Challenge this year.
In the season opener, Diggers lost four of the five games, something club manager Andrew Collison attributed to players not quite gelling together in their teams.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do in terms of getting our team structure applied properly but considering it was our first really tough game together as a unit it went relatively well,” he said.
“I would say the youngsters we’ve managed to bring into the club in key positions, such as lock, hooker and flank, performed very well.”
Diggers head coach, Sean Johnson said poor defence let the teams down. Furthermore, two training sessions in the weeks leading to the match were cancelled due to load-shedding and lightning which did not help matters.
Collison and Johnson said pre-season training was focused on strength and conditioning, body position techniques and rucking. Diggers won its two warm-up matches against Sasolburg and Hartbeespoort rugby clubs during pre-season.
Diggers will next play at home against Alberton at 4pm on 13 April. “Alberton is a club we enjoy playing. They are really competitive and our scores are usually quite close and our games are tight. Before then we will work on our application of the game plan and team cohesion, so working together as a unit,” Collison concluded.
Matchday results
U19: Diggers won 19–15
U21: Wanderers won 39–3
3rd: Wanderers won 29–0
2nd: Wanderers won 36–17
1st: Wanderers won 47–7.
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