The first visitors of the year would be Allen Glen High School and after an undercard of hockey, netball and tennis, the main event began at 11:00. The Hoërskool Bastion players burst onto the field with a thunderous welcome by the tunnel formed by everyone in attendance as the fired-up Buffels took on Allen Glen’s Blue Machine on March 5.
From receiving the kickoff, the hosts set a physical tone with aggressive carries. In Allen Glen’s first possession, an exuberant statement of intent by the Bastion defence bordered on excessive. With the Allen Glen winger needing to be stretchered off, the referee chose to see mitigating circumstances with the high tackle, and sent Divan Myburgh to the bin for 10 minutes when the shade of the card could easily have been darker.
Bastion would dominate the open exchanges, crossing the chalk twice only to have both efforts scratched off for a forward pass and knock-on, respectively. Allen Glen slowly grew into the game and began to stretch the Bastion defence, repeatedly finding space on the outside. After coming close several times and following a string of offside penalties, captain Ntokozo Sambo would round the Bastion defence, diving over in the corner to open the scoring.
Bennie Paich would be the next Bastion player in the sin bin as a result of his team’s repeated infringements. However, he would quickly redeem himself as just seconds after coming back on he would find space along the main grandstand touchline. Propelled forward by the screams just metres away, Bennie showed lightning pace, streaking 60 metres to dot down under the posts on the stroke of half-time.
Allen Glen would suffer a major setback at the start of the second half when their talisman and captain was stretchered off with a broken leg. The team would pull themselves together for Ntokozo, coming close to the line but knocking on at the crucial moment. Fortune would smile on them though as in the ensuing scrum just metres from the Bastion line, the ball would spit out the wrong end and Silindile Ngobese would collect the loose ball to waltz in for their second try.
Barring the mishap that led to the try, Bastion had dominated the scrums while also benefiting from some good positional kicking by their flyhalf, Rocco Oosthuizen. Having pinned Allen Glen to their own try line, the visitors needed to defend a scrum five metres out. A massive scrum by Bastion caused the Allen Glen pack to disintegrate, with scrumhalf Juan Venter pouncing on the loose ball to dot down. The resulting conversion levelled the scores at 14–14.
More territorial dominance earned Bastion a penalty moments later and the hosts opted for the points, taking the lead 17–14. As time ticked away, Allen Glen launched a final attack and with 10 metres of undefended grass between himself and the try line, the Allen Glen back lost his composure and the ball, ending the Blue Machine’s challenge. Bastion cleared from the resulting scrum and put their opponents to the sword, adding another try under the posts at the death. Bastion gave one of their forwards a chance to convert, but he hooked it wide, bringing with it the final whistle and a 22–14 win for the hosts.
