Nail-bite finish before the double
2010-10-21
WITH minutes to go and a chance for Riverstones to be victorious in the Paarl Region Rugby championships final against Vineyards last Saturday at the Faure Street Stadion, the crowds held their breath when flyhalf, Gerswin Paulse of Riverstones, took aim for a 3 pointer to give his team a 1-point victory. A few minutes before this penalty River-stones prop, Hein Pretorius, scored their fourth try to make it 25-27, but Paulse missed the two pointer to draw the score level. After this his team was in dire need for a 3-point penalty. And it came, however controversial, almost when the “hooter” sounded the 80 minutes. And Paulse tried again, but he missed again and Vineyards was crowned the Paarl Region Knock-out champion with a 27-25 victory. This made it a double in the 2010 season after they had won the League trophy earlier. They are the first team to do so in the history of the Paarl Region competition. It was a lively and high-scoring final in which Vineyards controlled matters from the outset. The capacity crowd was entertained from the word go in this last game of the 2010 season. Vineyards held Riverstones in the scrums and didn’t allow them the advantage in any of the tight facets and did more than their share at the breakdowns guaranteeing their dangerous backs good, clean ball. They also had the better of the line-outs and, all in all, showed their experience with a more professional performance. Vineyards seemed on a cruise to the biggest cup final score yet when they were ahead 24-3, but Riverstones, renowned for their fight back in the second half this season, came back with three excellent tries to creep to 27-25. A controversial penalty citing from the touch judge after what seemed a legal tackle by inside centre, Adlee Moerat, in the last seconds of the game gave ‘Stones the opportunity to win, but the kick from the corner was narrowly missed securing Vineyards with a 27-25 victory. Vineyards’ tries were scored by Alvin Farmer (scrumhalf), Ricky Jordaan (flyhalf) and Jody Joostenberg (fullback). Jordaan added 12 points with the boot. Riverstones’ points were scored by Malcom Theo, Yulin Claasen, Hein Pretorius and Dadrian von Willingh. Paulse added 3 points with a penalty.
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