A win on the road is invaluable and Motorvaps False Bay resisted a second-half onslaught to exit Florida Park 17-13 winners after leading 17-6 at the break.
Florida Park is all too often the graveyard of many a visiting club, the atmosphere electrifying and local support passionate. The preliminary programme indicated that the Bay were the favourites, with convincing wins by their under-20 As, Second XV and their women’s outfits. All too often these results are no indicator of the result between the first teams and as proved, Saturday was no exception.
Motorvaps False Bay were under some pressure in the opening half hour, although this pressure may not have manifested in frequent visits by the Tigers to the Bay quarter. A frustrating blemish on their game, which persisted for the major part of the match, was their lineout accuracy. All too often the throws were either skew or did not find the jumper. Had this been better, the efficacy on attack would have been far more dangerous.
It was the Bay who broke the duck on the scoreboard with a Grant Hermanus penalty. Their side of the scoreboard stayed on three as Tygerberg centre, Adrian Roberts converted two consecutive penalties to give his team a 6-3 lead. The stockily-built centre, a darling of the crowd, was a constant threat to the Bay line, desperate tackles shutting him down.
A push over try by hooker Jacques Goosen, goaled by Hermanus, put the visitors into the lead. False Bay were inspired, attacking the Tiger lines with great efficiency. Their absolute dominance in the scrums was having a detrimental effect on their hosts. Their props, beefy powerhouses, were showing signs of fatigue, with subsequent injury breaks affording them respite and rejuvenation.
With a series of penalties in their favour, Motorvaps False Bay opted for the line kick rather than banking the three points and in the process keeping the scoreboard rolling and exerting pressure on Tygerberg.
After a couple of blunted attacks from the lineout, scrumhalf Dylan Frylinck dummied and took the gap to score alongside the posts. Hermanus gave the Bay their last points of the match.
The second half was characterised by a plethora of cards issued by the referee, the most telling being the red card shown to Hermanus for a dangerous tackle. The tackle met the threshold punishable with expulsion, but on only the live action view, did it appear as if the tackler was descending in a fall and contributed to the height of the tackle. Nevertheless, based on their view of the action, the officials cannot be faulted for the decision.
Permanently down to 14 men with a determined Tygerberg throwing everything at Motorvaps False Bay, it would take a massive show of character by False Bay to keep the win intact, with more than half an hour to go. Breathing fire and determined to upset the Constantia outfit, the Tigers broke free and it was only sheer guts and glory which kept the Bay line intact.
As the half progressed, False Bay suffered another three yellow cards, finishing the last seven minutes with 12 men on the pitch. Much to the chagrine of Tygerberg, they could not cross the Bay line, and eventually with literally minutes to play, right wing Brandon Collins capped a good outing when he rounded off an attack, exploiting a two-man overlap. Godlen Masimla converted.
An away win at the Florida Park cauldron is immense and it is that which the coaches and players will focus on as they prepare to face Stellenbosch University on Saturday.
The exciting False Bay under-20 As start proceedings at 1.30pm. The main fixture kicks off at 4pm.
