The match between Westville and Hilton was a tightly contested one. Westville were a much improved side when it came to their lineouts, scrums, rucks, one on one tackles and in playing in the right areas of the field. Westville had put Jared Lombard back at fullback, which is his best position and shifted Dekota Pienaar into the number 10 jersey. Pienaar performed very well at flyhalf on the weekend and it seems as though the coaches can now be a little more at ease when it comes to this vitally important position.
The match was very evenly balanced in the beginning, with Westville controlling the match with confidence. However, they gave away penalties at critical times . A lapse in concentration on defence allowed for Hilton to open the scoring with the first try of the match, which was duely converted. Westville came back strongly and received two penalties for their efforts, which were kicked over by Jared Lombard. The halftime score was 6 -7 to Hilton.
In the 2nd half Westville found it far more difficult to put any kind of phases together as the penalty count mounted against them. Westville received an early penalty, which Lombard kicked over (9 -7 to Westville).With a number of penalties going against Westville, Hilton were able to gain the ascendency and managed to score in the corner to go ahead 9 – 12, with the conversion missed. Westville continued to put pressure in the Hilton tryline and managed to get another penalty, which Lombard kicked over to level the score 12 – 12 all. From this point onwards Westville found it difficult to play any kind of rugby in the Hilton half of the field. They gave away far too many penalties and were unable to launch any meaningful attacks. The penalty count mounted against them and Hilton picked up two penalties, which were kicked over by their flyhalf to take the lead 12 – 18. The Westville defence stood strong, with Hilton mounting attack after attack. Westville then picked some really serious injuries to Brogan Boulle, Gustav du Randt and Zane Heyneke, which forced the coaching staff to go to the bench. The changes seemed to drop the intensity of the Westville defence and two missed tackles allowed for Hilton to score their third try of the match. With the conversion good, Hilton won the match 12- 25. The final score belies the fact that the outcome was in the balance for a good 55 minutes of the game.
The full set of results are available under Sports/Latest Results on the website.