KEAGAN MITCHELL
Kuils River RFC bounced back to winning ways, beating Northern Northlink College (NNK) 36-23, in a Western Province Rugby Football Union (WPRFU) Super League A (SLA) fixture, at the Jan Burger sports complex, in Parow, on Saturday.
It was a much-improved performance by the Jagstershof-based side after they lost their first four games of the season, with three of them being narrow losses.
The home side recorded the first points of the match when full-back Brynmor Africa converted a penalty early in the first half and followed it up with another in a space of five mintues.
The visitors responded immediately when winger Ronaldo Conradie scored the opening try of the match while full-back Granwill Adams slotted the conversion.
Kuils River ran in a further two tries in the half when winger Llewellyn Moolman and flyhalf Charl Vollenhoven went over the try line with both conversions slotted over by Adams. Between the two converted tries, Adams also slotted a penalty. The Kuila Boys went into the break 24-6. They continued where they left off in the first half when Conradie scored his second try of the game, however, Adams failed to convert it.
NNK then hit back with two tries in the space of five mintues, taking the score to 29-18, but the visitors then scored their fifth try of the game when prop Ludwe Ntkondala went over the try line. Angel September scored the host’s third try in the final minute of the match. Kuils River coach Kuyper Albertyn said he believes the team could have done better but is happy with the side’s bonus point victory.
“The backline won the game for us because our tries came from open play. In the first half we could have handled the ball much better because we dropped it at crucial places. My players were putting too much pressure on themselves because we wanted to take it wide too quickly. At the break I told them to settle down and it paid off,” he said.
The 2015 SLB champions have not been having it all their way in SLA as they picked up three points from four games before this. The boys in blue and yellow showed more hunger and it paid off as they scored five tries in the game with only the one missed conversion.
Albertyn said this was a difficult week for his players because they needed to pick up that first victory of the season.
“We worked hard at training to fix our mistakes that we made in our previous games. All the players came to the party and achieved what they set out to do at practise. We worked hard for this victory,” he said.
Kuils River will host northern rivals Brackenfell in their next encounter on Saturday May 21 and Albertyn believes his side can take a number of positives going forward.
“At this stage I am not worried about who our opponents are but worried about my own team. We will take it game by game with the main goal to stay in SLA,” he said.
Meanwhile, NNK coach Wilbur Kraak said he was disappointed in the loss because it was one of those games where they were targeting a victory. However, he believes he players showed continuity throughout the game.
“We were not clinical enough especially at our set pieces. We prepared well all week because we knew they were going to play an expansive game.
“A few slip tackles in the middle cost us in the first half and that was when Kuils River gained momentum. We came back well in the second but then we let them slip in a try again and if you make a mistake your opponents are going to capitalise on it,” he said.
In other SLA action, Durbell beat UWC 29-8, Victorians beat Sir Lowrians 45-10, Tygerberg beat Belhar 36-19, Hamiltons beat Brackenfell 38-28, Maties beat UCT 21-20 and False Bay beat SK Walmers 11-10