Saturday 4th March 2006

Barking Dev’t (24) vs LSA (31)

LSA grind out tough win away from home...

This game was the first competitive league game for some weeks for LSA and the team were up for it. They were glad to welcome back former skipper Ryan Hendrikz at hooker and LSA were able to field a strong side to face a determined Barking XV, themselves looking to move out of their mid-table league position.

The opening period of the game saw some ferocious play with the forwards taking the fight to Barking led by the uncompromising back row. The tackling from the forwards was hard and never allowed Barking to settle despite them being the home team. In spite of this LSA were unfortunate to find themselves 10 – 0 down inside the opening quarter following a breakaway try and penalty from Barking.

Barking looked to move the ball wide and kicked well strategically causing the LSA back 3 to have to work hard in defence. But with great work across the midfield from Matt Fendick at 10, Nick Osman at 12 and Carl Van De Walt (13) the opposition were never going to find it easy and LSA were soon back in the hunt with a score from Chris Barron quickly being followed up by one from Nick Osman who latched onto a great inside pass from Carl Van der Walt, newly restored to the starting line up following a lengthy absence through injury. LSA had rallied to lead 12 – 10.

The lead wasn’t to last for long as Barking cam back with a good try of their own through their back row to go back in front 17 – 12. This was compounded just before half time as Hendrikz was sent to the sin-bin. Barking applied a lot of pressure and gained a scrum 5mts from our line but Scott Kelly (on for Hendrikz) was more than equal to the task of shoring up the front row and LSA resisted magnificently.

That resistance was to prove a key point in the game as LSA came out for the second half with the wind in their favour and some 10 minutes their good play was rewarded when Barron crossed again after some great phase play to put LSA 19 – 17 ahead.

Not long after Cyril Sauer extended LSA’s lead after some great interplay with a score in the left hand corner putting LSA 24 – 17 up. The team were beginning to play to their potential and had clearly gained the upper hand. There was to be one final scare for LSA as the game entered its final phase as a loose pass from Osman allowed Barking to go the length of the field and score to level the game at 24 – 24. The game was set for a tense finish but to LSA’s credit they did what they needed to do… with 5 minutes remaining Tiaan Visser was driven over and John Turner secured his 4th conversion from 5 to seal the game 31 – 24 to LSA.

Testimony to the gutsy performance, it transpired that Barking had in fact sent out their 2nd XV rather than the intended Development side.  Given their 1st XV play in the 3rd level of senior English rugby there is no doubt that LSA are capable of playing at a much higher level than currently.

Try Scorers

Chris Barron (2), Nick Osman (1), Cyril Sauer (1) and Tiaan Visser (1)

Conversions

John Turner (4)

Starting XV

James Saunders, Ryan Hendrikz, Aldo du Plessis, Ryan Williamson, Cyril Sauer, Chris Barron, Tiaan Visser, Hanno Vermaak, John Turner, Matt Fendick, Bevan Williams, Nick Osman, Carl van der Walt, Byron Gove, Martin Schoeman

Replacements

Scott Kelly, Deon Vosloo, Rob Henning and Dave Botha