Wynberg U13A rout traditional rivals WPPS

Another glorious winter's day in Cape Town produced a wonderful spectacle of running rugby from the hosts Wynberg as they squared up to traditional rivals Western Province Preparatory School.

With the bitter memory of a poor first-half display against Worcester last week still fresh in the players' minds they were determined to put this aspect of their game right. Perhaps this led to a case of over-eagerness as a slew of penalties was conceded at the breakdown area. Players tended to dive into the rucks without remaining on their feet.

Happily however, the team absorbed the pressure applied on them by the opposition in the early part of the half before clawing their way downfield and spending the rest of the half inside their opponents 22m area. With the home side's backline firing on all cylinders it was not long before the tries started to flow.

Brian Foster scored the first from a driving maul off the flank and converted his own effort. The second try was scored from a piece of individual brilliance by scrumhalf Labib Kannemeyer who stood out with his creative play during the entire game. He picked the ball up from a ruck and spotting the gap made a sniping run around the fringe of the ruck and scored from 35m out. Conversion was good by Brian Foster and Wynberg led 14-0.

A third try was scored just before half time by fullback Chigo Iwegbuna from another backline attack where the ball did the work and Chigo used his side-stepping ability to cut inside the drifiting defenders and scored. Brian slotted the conversion to leave the hosts in a healthy lead of 21-0 at halftime.

After the break it was not long before the hosts scored again having gained the desired momentum and confidence from the first half performance. Wynberg's backline looked dangerous with ball in hand throughout while the forwards provided them with the perfect platform from which to attack. 

A total of six tries were scored in the second half with Brian slotting a total of seven conversions from the nine tries scored in the game!

The secret to success in this game was the committed running by the backline, the hard work done by the forwards and making sure that the basics were carried out impressively. I cannot remember this side committing so few handling errors and this definitely helped their cause.

A further observation to note is that the team seems to playing for each other rather than playing for individual glory. Passes were being made and line breaks only being attempted if the gap was there to exploit.

Final score: 59-0 to Wynberg.

Well done Wynberg on a much improved and impressive display of hard, running rugby!

Try Scorers: Brian Foster, Labib Kannemeyer (2), Chigo Iwegbuna, Mika Ekström (2), Ayanda Mkhonto (2), Thandile Tinzi.

Conversions: Brian Foster (7)

Click here for pictures of the game.

Video Highlights of the game.

Full Results of the day:

U13A WON 59-0
U13B WON 54-12

U12A WON 10-5
U12B LOST 0-12

U11A WON 5-0
U11B WON 28-10

U10A LOST 10-0
U10B LOST 17-10

U9A LOST 0-3
U9B LOST 0-3
U9C WON 5-1
U9D LOST 5-1

STATS:
PLAYED 12 WON 6 LOST 6 WIN RATE: 50%