LSA Shield XV produce another big win....

Saturday 6th October

by Matt Fendick

The LSA Shield team faced Portsmouth at the Theatre of Dreams, Imber Court,

this past Saturday.

An earlier than usual kick-off seemed to have a slight disruptive effect
on the team with a few of lads still rubbing some sleep out of their
eyes as a slow start and some uncharacteristic penalties gifted
Portsmouth a 3-0 lead. LSA hit back in the 6th minute with a try in the
right hand corner by Ben Bougas, who touched down after a cross kick
was recovered following some promising phase play. However, LSA proved

to be generous hosts, and allowed the visiting kicker another shot at goal,

which he duly converted.

This seemed to spur the boys on, and subsequent scores in the 14th
(Malcolm Mirfin) and 18t h (Bok van Rooyen) minutes shifted momentum
back into the home team's favour. Further tries were added by Louis van
Zyl and again Malcolm Mirfin, both also being converted by Matt Fendick,
to enter the halftime break with the score at 33 - 6.

Some determined conversation during the break saw the second half start

off with a change in attitude; the first 40 minutes had been relatively
sloppy, and to their credit, the opposition had turned up with a very
decent rolling maul, which was frequently used as their main point of
attack. Scrumhalf Vaughan Gilson crossed the line following a sequence
of strong running and rucks 2 minutes after the restart. Ben Bougas
added a second try 5 minutes later, showing a good step and pace from a
well worked set piece move. More was to follow as a break through the
middle and a kick ahead was collected by number 8 Brad Hall who ran in
the remaining 25 metres to dot down. A yellow card to the hosts for a
late tackle allowed Portsmouth an avenue to score some points, and they
did so through their scrumhalf sniping around a ruck following a
catch-and-drive in the LSA 22metre.

With the reintroduction of our 15th player, LSA proceeded to run in a
further 4 tries (3 converted) with Mirfin, van Zyl, Johan Strydom (on
debut) and a fit again Johan Smit all picking up 5 points for the team.