Wynberg end a four-year drought against Bishops

In this return traditional fixture played at Wynberg this morning in cold and damp conditions, what stood out to me was the gritty and determined defensive effort that the hosts displayed throughout the match. It is without a shadow of a doubt what earned the team their well-deserved victory today - the first time this particular team has beaten Bishops during the four years that I have been watching them play.

Wynberg started the game like a house-on-fire. This is something the coaches have been working hard on, for the boys to put in a sustained effort through the entirety of the match. Today they did just that. From the kick-off by inside center Mika Ekström, Wynberg applied the pressure on Bishops and spent some considerable time in their opponents’ half. From the pressure they were richly rewarded when the ball was fed through the hands to the left with a clear overlap. Left-wing Wasim Kagee scored wide and the hosts’ confidence soared.

Although the conversion was pushed wide by Mika, he made up for it with three successive penalties in the first half. The first was from almost the exact same spot as the attempted conversion kick, while the second was from wide out on the right touchline and the last one pretty much straight in front of the poles.

Although Bishops scored a try of their own after a prolonged period of attack in the Wynberg 22m area where they tested the Wynberg defensive effort time and time again, their conversion attempt in front of the posts failed.

This left the halftime score at 14-5 in favour of Wynberg.

After the break Bishops came out firing on all cylinders determined to wrest the initiative back but it was the hugely impressive Wynberg defence that won the day. The score did not change during the half and although Bishops had their opportunities to claw their way back on the scoreboard they simply were not allowed to do so by the in-your-face tackling and hard driving by the whole of the Wynberg team.

The victory can be attributed to the whole team’s willingness to take on their opposite number in defence. The team has gained a huge amount of self-confidence from the last three games where the players have raised their efforts to match their potential.

This was truly a team effort of some magnitude and the boys will be proud of the fact that it is the first time in four years that they have managed to triumph over Bishops. They certainly took a leaf out of the Stormers defensive play-book and can look forward to the remaining two derby games at home: Rondebosch next Saturday followed by SACS the week after.

To single out individual performances is perhaps slightly unfair after such a wonderful team effort, but special mention must be made of hooker Levi Williams’ play in the rucks where he stole countless opposition ball, scrumhalf Labib Kannemeyer in providing his forwards with plenty of go-forward ball from the base of the rucks and scrums and putting his body on the line on numerous occasions against some monster forwards, Keegan Africa and Thandile Tinzi’s immense tackling efforts, the midfield combination of Ayanda Mkhonto and Mika Ekström which kept the dangerous opposition runners at bay while right-wing Cameron Samuel was simply superb in the one-on-one situations against much larger and stronger opponents in open play.

Final score: 14-5 to Wynberg.

Scorers:

Tries: Wasim Kagee
Penalties: Mika Ekström (3)

Click here for the picture gallery from the game.

More pictures of this game on the WP Sport website taken by Steven Riches can be viewed here.

Video Highlights

Full results:

Wynberg scores listed first

U13A: 14-5
U13B: 28-34

U12A: 3-14
U12B: 19-31
U12C: 20-12

U11A: 7-19
U11B: 7-5
U11C: 20-12

U10A: 0-5
U10B: 12-17

U9A: 5-35
U9B: 10-0
U9C: 0-0
U9D: 5-0