Warriors return to league glory
It's been a very solid season for the local rugby club.
A comfortable 39-19 win over Westville Old Boys at Douglas Mitchell Sports Ground last Saturday ensured that the Riversmead South Coast Warriors won the Fidelity Security First Division South rugby league this year.
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Scrumhalf Nico Smuts scored a brilliant individual try, kicking the ball into space and collecting by himself, before arm-wrestling his way over as opposition players tried to stop him.
In another highlight, wing Xander Lourens discovered he can in fact side-step an opponent and did so in dazzling fashion to score an exceptional try.
Other tries were scored by Cameron Camp, David Durrheim, Brandt Fields (2) and Yonela Baleni. Fields knocked over two conversions.
It was a well deserved win and the team can reflect on a rewarding season which saw renewed commitment from the players plus a pleasing emergence of some exciting talent.
However, in terms of promotion, the job is not quite done and there’ll be a match against the winners of the north league to see who goes up.
That match will be played at Jonssons Kings Park on September 7.
But before that, there’s the Hollywoodbets Murray Cup knockout to play.
And as fate would have it, the Warriors have been drawn against archrivals Hillcrest Villagers in their first round game.
That match is away this Saturday (4th) and will certainly be a tough one, but the Warriors have a good squad with a lot of depth and will back themselves to win it.
The team that played last Saturday was: 1 Jade Nyman, 2 Chris Mitchell, 3 Lourens Stapelberg, 4 Lunga Madlala, 5 Chris Sharpe, 6 Cameron Camp, 7 David Durrheim, 8 Brendan Rademeyer, 9 Nico Smuts, 10 Brandt Fields, 11 Mangwe Marubellella, 12 Donovon Horn, 13 Yonela Baleni, 14 Xander Lourens, 15 Johan Gericke.
Reserves: 16 Msizi Mzindle, 17 Jaques Coetzee, 18 Juan van den Berg, 19 Tian Malherbe, 20 Graeme Bester.
The second team won their game 34-19, causing something of an upset by beating the log leaders and a team that has been unbeaten so far this season.
They managed the win despite losing key player Wesley Nyman 10 minutes into the second half to what the Warriors players felt was a questionable red card.
Tries were scored by Jaques Coetzee, Keith Chiwara, Nhlanthla Lushaba, Greame Bester and KV Fatyela.
Conversions by Diego Storm and Keith Chiwara, who also landed a penalty.
“It was a great performance and very entertaining match to watch,” said team coach Gromingo Mzunga.
Men of the match were Keith Chiwara (backline) and KV Fatyela (forwards).
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