Albion 38 Bees 29

By Frank Stormont
October 15 2006

Pertemp Bees may have come hoping for a win but went away with a bonus try point. Albion played better in the first half than second but did manage to score in the second half thanks to a Keni Fisilau charge down.

 

Albion 38 Bees 29

A match of two halves that saw both Albion and Pertemps walk away with a bonus point. Albion move into second place in the league but the top 5 clubs are within 4 points. Three yellow cards awarded against Albion and a run the full length of the pitch to score the first of Wihan Neethling's 23 personal points for the match.

Pertemp kicked off with a strong gusty wind blowing from right to left and spent the first 9 minutes in the Albion half apart from the occasional kick into which was quickly taken back by Pertemps.  Within in 4 minutes with Pertemps on Albion's 22 at the breakdown Pertemps, who had possession, switched their attack which was covered by Albion backs but at the next breakdown were judged to have been offside.  With a penalty inside the 22 and only a few metres right of the posts it looked like Albion were going to go behind but the wind came to their defence and ball went left of the posts.

Before 10 minutes were on the clock Wihan Neethling scored the try that should be remembered for a long time. Pertemps were on the attack with their backs attacking Albion's try line when a loose pass was intercepted by Wihan inside his own 5 metre line and ran the whole length of the pitch on his own. At the halfway line he changed direction to ran straight for the posts making his conversion easier.

With only the second time that Albion had been in the Pertemps half with the ball Ed Lewsey broke through the defence before passing to Regardt van Eyk who managed to take the ball to within 10 metres of the try line before the breakdown. The next phase saw the ball passed out to Wihan for him to score his second try in as many minutes this time 10 metres from the left hand touch line but it was successfully converted.

On 17 minutes had yet another attempt to increase the score when Albion were awarded a penalty in the centre of the pitch and after some discussion between Ed Barnes, Danny Thomas and Wihan Neethling the ball was changed twice to get a nice hard ball to enable the three points to be added.

A penalty awarded to Pertemps for Albion  diving in at the ruck half way through the first half at a similar place to the one that was missed was kicked to give Pertemps their first points by the boot of John Higgins.

With Albion still on a high a driving maul started 15 metres out on the left hand side forced Pertemps over the line for Ben Gulliver to fall on the ball and being awarded his first try in an Albion shirt.  Wihan showed his form by slotting the conversion to make the score 24 -3.

Shortly after Albion were reduced to 14 men when an infringement was pointed out by the touch judge on the far side of the pitch and Richard Oxley was sin binned. No one seemed to be sure what it was for, not even Richard as he left the pitch, after the match.

Pertemps tried to take advantage of the extra man but Albion managed to hold up the ball as the pack approached their try line for a scrum to be awarded. With Albion's starting hooker off the pitch James Owen came on to make up the front row with Federico Genoud having a ten minute rest.

Just before Richard was allowed back on the pitch Wihan thought that the icing must have been placed on his cake as he crossed the line in the left hand corner but the referee's whistle went for a forward pass on the Pertemp's 5 metre line.

With the clock showing that the 40 minutes were up Albion start a driving, rolling maul which was held 7 metres short of the line but the ball was retained and passed out to Regardt van Eyk who crossed the line before running to the posts for the bonus point try.

With 5 extra minutes played Pertemps did make an attempt to cross the try line but were held short by Albion.

Albion go to the changing room leading 31 points to 3 and the discussion in the grandstand was about how Albion would play in the second half.  Would they score again or just let Pertemps knock away at the score? One thing was sure that Albion were going to retain their try bonus point.

An unchanged side was fielded by Albion after half time but within 5 minutes Keni Fisilau was sin binned for a high tackle in front of the touch judge.  This was not the only high tackle of the match as Pertemps seemed to produce several of their own but were not spoken to or sin binned.

Pertemps took advantage of the man over and a missed tackle by Wihan to score a converted try in the corner. A second try was saved when Nigel Cane fell on the ball in front of the posts. After the next breakdown Wihan Neethling was yellow carded in what seemed to be an impulse flick of the wrist from the pocket and without speaking to either captain before showing the ball. I presume that the card was awarded for dissent as it was just as the visitors were about to take the penalty awarded for not rolling away.

With Albion down to 13 men for a minute Pertemps waited for Keni to come back on before scoring their second try from a driving maul just to the left of the posts.

Still with one man off the pitch and Ed Lewsey down injured in the other half the referee allowed the penalty and resultant throw in to be taken without even checking on Ed's condition. Pertemps were allowed to force the 5 metres to cross the try line on the left. Not kicking the conversion meant that Pertemps were not yet in a bonus point situation, trailing by 31  points to 22.

Albion spent a long time trying to force their way over the try line without success for the forwards.  An attempt to clear the ball from their own in goal area by Pertemps was charged down under the posts and grounded by Keni Fisilau.

 With only a minute of normal time left Pertemps score their fourth try of the match under the posts picking up a bonus point before quickly kicking the conversion and running back with the aim of picking up another bonus point. It was not to be as four minutes later the referee blow up for the end of the match.

Another game that saw two different sides play for Albion, in the first half they were in control even when they were a man down. The second half saw Pertemps come out and with four pairs of fresh legs they were up for reducing the deficit. Pertemps were playing catch up rugby and it worked although Albion did stop them from going in front.

The game for me will be remembered for three things. Firstly the number of times the referee blew the whistle which seemed at times harder on Albion than it did on Pertemps, but the ref can only blow for what he sees.  Secondly the fact that Albion are still playing two half rugby although for once they did actually score a converted try. Thirdly and to me most memorably the Wihan Neethling 100 metre dash to score under the posts.

 

Team: Wihan Neethling, Ed Lewsey, Regardt Van Eyk, Keni Fisilau, Nic Sestaret, Ed Barnes, Nigel Cane, Martin Rice, Richard Oxley, Scott Zimmerman, Colin Stewart, Ben Gulliver, Federico Genoud, Danny Thomas, Tom Hayes Replacements: Arran Cruickshanks, Nat Saumi(used), Jon Fabian, Tim Mathias, James Owen(used), Brett Stroud, Chris Lowrie(used)

Scorers :- Tries Ben Gulliver, Keni Fisilau, Regardt Van Eyk, 2xWihan Neethling Penalties Wihan Neethling Conversions 5xWihan Neethling