Four teams — Buffalos, Walter Sisulu University All Blacks, Fort Beaufort United and East London Police — made winning starts to the Brutten Ten rugby competition at Police Park over the weekend.
Buffs, who were making their debut in the competition, started the proceedings by beating Komga United 29-23 under difficult, rainy conditions on Saturday.
Mhlankosi Sithole opened the scoring for Buffs with a try, but Komga responded with four penalties by centre Esihle Mgxitha to take a 12-9 lead into halftime. Buffs were down a man at this stage through a yellow card.
Asithandile Ben powered his way over the try line at the start of second half from a quick tap to help Buffs regain the lead.
Fullback Indiphile Ntsenge scored Komga’s first try but Sami Mlenzana put Buffs back in front. They stayed ahead to put themselves in a good position in pool A.
Buffs player-of-the-match flyhalf Chris Rheeder said: “It was scrappy because it was wet. We started like a house on fire but Komga put up a fight; you could see they were well prepared but we quickly adapted.”
WSU All Blacks ripped apart Berlin Tigers 54-6 and head pool B with five points. They led 35-3 at halftime as the Tigers battled to handle the pressure they were put under.
WSU All Blacks captain Khanya Solani said: “We didn’t gym for the past two weeks for the team to put in an all-round performance like that.
“It was amazing. What we loved is though we had a high-scoring first half we didn’t drop the intensity in the second half. If we can carry that mentality through the whole tournament we will do well.”
In the third game of the day, FB United managed to shrug off a stubborn WSU Eagles side for a 32-12 win.
The Eagles, who are playing in the Border Premier League, put up a fight in the first half against a team who are playing in the top flight of the Super League.
Eagles took a 12-11 lead into the dressing room but the wheels came off in the second half, which captain Lutho Mampunye attributed to a lack of experience.
“They were physical in that second half and we couldn’t match their tempo,” he said.
“But we will get experience as the competition goes on because that is what we lacked in this game.
“We will go back to the drawing board and look at our mistakes and decision-making.”
In the main event of the day, Police had to sweat for their 22-16 win over Rising Stars.
The game was dubbed as tussle of David and Goliath. Stars, who play in the third tier of club rugby, almost sucker punched the Super League champions. At halftime the score was 10-9.
Logs
Pool A: FB United 5, Buffs 5, Komga United 1, Progress 0, WSU Eagles 0
Pool B: WSU All Blacks 5, EL Police 5, Rising Stars 1, Young Leopards 0, Berlin Tigers 0