WESTVILLE BOYS’ HIGH 41-3 MILNERTON HIGH
Westville Boys’ High took little time to settle down when they faced Milnerton High at the Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival on Monday afternoon in Botha’s Hill, scoring in the third minute on their way to a 41-3 victory, which gave them an unbeaten record at KERF for a second successive year.
Lisa Sijadu got the scoreboard moving by sprinting over in the left-hand corner of Stott Field, and Jade-Will Koopman nailed the touchline kick to make it 7-0.
Perhaps it was the kinder early afternoon weather, but the pace of the match was noticeably more urgent than the three games played earlier in the day. Westville, with some of their most experienced forwards among the substitutes, owned the territorial advantage, but Milnerton kept them at bay, closing down a series of openings for the local side.
With 12 minutes left in the opening stanza, though, the pressure told with a sweetly timed blindside move, bringing together flyhalf Jade-Will Koopman, fullback Avumile Lisa, and centre Jadrian Afrikaner, ending with Afrikaner doing what he does so well, scoring a try.
With Koopman controlling the flow of the match effectively, it took Milnerton until five minutes from the break to escape their half. Westville responded by running in a long-range try.
They outflanked Millies wide on the left, and Sijadu was on for his second.
The Griffins added a fourth try with the last move of the first half. Keeping the Milnerton defence honest with some straight lines from dummy runners, they swiftly moved the ball to the right boundary line, where an injection of pace from Avumile Lisa put Bukho Sotaka over for five.
Westville roared back onto the attack in the second half, and Sijadu left defenders grasping at air with some fleet footwork in the fourth minute, but he knocked on as he stretched out to ground the ball over the try line.
Ominously, Westville sent on six replacements with 20 minutes to go, giving their frontliners a last run in the festival. They brought a collective urgency onto the field.
Milnerston suffered a body blow when a poor Westville penalty kick to touch fell short and bounced high. The Capetonians tried to keep the ball in play by tapping it infield only for Sijadu to race onto it and cross for his third try.
Westville missed the conversion, with Lux Sonkononkono taking over from Koopman. If there was a criticism to be made about the Griffins, it was their goal- and touch kicking, which left something to be desired. They would have expected better of themselves.
With nine minutes remaining, SA Schools’ lock Lwandle Mlaba, one of the substitutes, rode a tackle and popped a ball over a defender to Jade-Will Koopman, who claimed the ball off his shoelaces and dived over for five points.
Once again, the try was in a corner, but this time Koopman was bang on target from wide on the right, and Westville moved 31-0 clear.
Then, lock Drew Hollingsworth was rewarded for an industrious performance when, in the last 10 minutes, he jumped over the top of a ruck, found clear ground in front of him, and charged over beneath the poles. Koopman added the extras.
Milnerton kept battling hard, but they were outgunned. In a losing cause, their no. 8, Anda Filtana, made some impactful runs. Yet, when Millies received a penalty on the Westville 10-metre line, with two minutes left, their decision to go for goal said two things: they wanted to put some points on the board, and they wanted a breather.
Captain Chadlin Sellidon nailed the kick to make sure they achieved both of those objectives. It gave Milnerton the last say in the game, but Westville won comfortably.
Scores
Westville 41 (22) – Tries: Lisa Sijadu (3), Jadrian Afrikaner, Bukho Sotaka, Jade-Will Koopman, Drew Hollingsworth. Conversion: Jade-Will Koopman (3)
Milnerton 3 (0) – Penalty: Chadlin Sellidon
PHOTOGRAPHER: GABRIELLE SWANEPOEL
