AMANZIMTOTI Rugby Club match reports from the weekend.
1st XV:
Toti travelled up to Empangeni on Saturday, 11 July to take on Zululand Rhinos at their Mick Kelly Park headquarters.
Any visiting team to this part of the world will tell you that this is always a very tricky encounter, with the Zululanders always playing their best rugby in front of their home support. The fact that the home side had also come off a very good win against Varsity College the week before, and were running into some good late season form, turned this encounter into a potential booby trap into which Toti could ill afford to fall if they were to harbour any ambitions of a top three finish in the premier league.
With the target of a full house of five league points being set prior to the game, Toti played some high risk, high reward rugby in their quest to achieve this goal, and this tactic paid rich dividends with the requisite four tries scored before the half-time break through winger Sheldon Higgo, centre Marcel Els and a brace from barnstorming young flanker Brad Lange. Jaco de Jager converted two of the tries to give Toti a healty 24-6 advantage at the halfway stage.
The second half saw Toti score a further two tries, one each from Jaco de Jager, who ran onto a perfectly weighted cross kick from flyhalf Jose Rodrigues to score out wide, and Marcel Els who added his second for the afternoon. De Jager was successful with one conversion to give Toti a 36-6 lead going into the final 15 minutes. With a raft of changes being made to give some of the substitutes a run, Toti did lose some of their defensive shape which Rhinos capitalised on to score a consolation try in the dying minutes of the game. This, however was all too little too late and Toti ran out deserved 36-13 victors. Toti next face UKZN Impi in another crucial encounter at home, and a win in this game would almost guarantee them a top three finish.
2nd XV:
This travel and game was never going to be easy for the Toti boys because of a depleted side from injuries, call up players to the first team and no doubt the long haul to Empangeni.
Nevertheless, the game was fairly slow paced with the home team going into the lead early and holding onto it for most of the game. With minutes to go, the home team were leading 17–14, which was brought to level terms by Toti. Shortly thereafter, an indiscretion by a Rhinos player saw Toti clinch the game 20–17 with a well struck penalty. Thanks must go some of the third side players for helping out.
The next games involving both the first and second teams take place on Friday night, 17 July at Hutchison Park, with kick-off scheduled for 6.30pm and 8pm respectively. A large crowd of vocal supporters would be welcomed by the players. The 3rd XV will play away against Pinetown in the Foaden Bowl on Saturday afternoon, 18 July with kick-off scheduled for 1.30pm.
Amanzimtoti Rugby Club is doing a collection for the local SPCA and requests all supporters to take along a tin of pet food or pellets of sorts towards this great cause. A box for collections has been placed in the pub.
