False Bay and Helderberg serve up pre-season rugby spectacle

Motorvaps False Bay hosted their friends from the other side of the bay, Helderberg, in their opening friendly of the season. The visitors edged out the Bay 40-43 in a 13-try festival of free-running rugby.

Yes, if you’re a glass-half-full purist, there was cause for concern in some segments. After all, we spoilt rugby supporters have become accustomed to flicking the power button and the finished product, complete with pom-pom girls, appearing on our super wide screens.

Yes, there were lots of mistakes and loads of work to be done for both sides. The banner on this publication means those of Motorvaps False Bay received attention.

Defence at times was porous, perhaps the main negative but conversely, the handling of the ball was at times sublime, the pace of the game blistering. Both teams were without some first-choice players.

The Bay had 17 senior squad members absent, six of whom were attending a wedding, which had many an old-school former player in the sizeable crowd tut-tutting. Getting married on a rugby day. What is this World coming to?

The visitors scored seven tries to the hosts’ six. The pace and execution in the build up to some of these tries were remarkable in the context of this being the beginning of March, at a stage of the year where games are stop-start, untidy affairs.

Helderberg’s big and very rapid backs ran hard at the Bay, with a number of their seven tries emanating from their own half with the five points being banked with barely a finger laid on the runner by the home defence.

Errors can be easily remedied, but what is encouraging and would be more difficult to correct with SLA2024 barely a month from kicking off, is fitness. Both teams are in good shape, their energy at the end of an open, free-flowing game on a hot Saturday, testimony to this. Motorvaps False Bay travel to Brackenfell on Saturday for the second of their friendly matches. 

Jon Harris is a member of False Bay RFC.