False Bay Rugby Football Club

Throw into the mix the Bay’s Second Team win over Maties Seconds 24-12. Effectively, with the return of the big names, this Maties Second Team was the Victorians team that played and lost to the Bay on Tuesday.

Indeed, False Bay played three student teams in seven days, a “Student Orientation Week” of sorts. They narrowly lost to UCT last week and turned the tables on the Varsity Cup Champions with a hard fought, close encounter at Constantia.

Before we get to what happened on the pitch, let’s set the scene so that the enormity of this achievement can be conveyed.

This Maties team boasted 12 of the Western Province Vodacom Cup team who played last week in the quarterfinal. It is the same squad who won the Varsity Cup. They had players such as Conrad Hoffman and Morgan Newman in the team, both of who have extensive WP experience. This was a quality outfit.

It was also the first time False Bay beat the Maties since Nick Mallett’s star-studded band of heroes did it in 1995. Apt one may suppose, that Andrew Brand and Julian Barnard, two of Nick’s stalwarts were in the sizeable crowd yesterday.

That’s not all. After a gut wrenching, injury time loss to Ikeys last week, most people would have expected the Bay to drop their shoulders and drop the next two fixtures. Most of us would have written the team off and said “oh well, it was good while it lasted”. Not these lads. The same 22 have faced all three students sides. That adds up to 22 very tired and sore bodies.

If you have not been down to False Bay yet, you’re missing out on something special. And it is not just 22 players who being held together with plaster and a prayer. There are so many quality players frothing at the mouth, waiting for their chance to contribute to the club’s 2010 success, it’s exciting. Even if you’re resident in Johannesburg, Sydney or Tunbridge Wells, buy a ticket and come down to a match at Constantia.

So…a match report? Let’s deal with the Mayday Victory first. A confident, classy Maties team took the pitch, and for those who watched the Varsity Cup, the team has a laid back, lazy style, which belies their focused and determined approach to the game. They appear disinterested but when the ball is in hand, they know how to play the game.

One could easily have mistaken this style for the Maties underestimating False Bay, but it was not so. False Bay, as expected, came at the Maties. Indeed the outstanding feature of their game yesterday was their tenacity and fearsome defence.

The Bay opened the scoreboard with a fine try by feisty wing Danie Roux. Played off a scrum in a pre-determined move, the left wing joined the line in the twelve channel, and with 30 metres of hard work and maroon jerseys aplenty in front of him; he danced and drove his way through to the line.

Field Marshall Dimitri Catrakilis (the man’s been promoted from General) converted and the Bay led 7-0.

Throughout the first half Stellenbosch held a slight territorial advantage. They are masters of ball retention and angled running and this was on display at Constantia yesterday. But for all their fluent passing and graceful running, they were met with unbridled passion, which emanated from the chests of 22 proud and determined men.

Not that False Bay was all aggression and bone crunching tackling. They counter attacked on many occasion and had the visitors at full stretch for more than they would have liked. Centre Marc Davids shone in this department.

A match report is difficult to write. Yes, there is information to be conveyed, like Danie Roux’s try and Dimitri’s calm and collected goal kicking.

With 15 minutes to go, the Bay were trailing 18-10 and defending their lines with heart. Riaan van der Vyver, he of fiery temperament and a passion for running back at the opposition, called for a mark. Almost immediately he tapped and ran and set up a counter attack, which nearly resulted in a try. It did result in a penalty and Catrakilis stepped up to the spot.

18-13 and the Bay could smell victory. With five minutes to go, he kicked what would later be the winning points.

Almost immediately a feeling of déjà vu descended upon the Phillip Herbstein grounds, as referee Joey Salman awarded a penalty to the Maties. Kemp stepped up and his attempt hit the crossbar. Catrakilis, given the opportunity, would surely have shared some sympathy with him, having suffered the same cruel twist of fate a week earlier.

With a minute to go, False Bay held their nerve and retained possession until given the nod by Salman to end the match. Wickins cleared the ball into touch and pandemonium descended. Captain and Man-of-the-Match, Justin van Winkel led his team off to a tumultuous reception and a tunnel of honour from the elated Bay supporters.

Stellenbosch scored two tries, incidentally this is the first time in their seven matches so far this season that they have not scored four or more. Their kicker, flyhalf Andre Kemp, left some points on the pitch with some ordinary goal kicking. There were some outstanding players for the Maties, who oozed class. Flanker Josh Strauss was immense on the hoof, scrumhalf Conrad Hoffman a magical playmaker and their kingpin. Morgan Newman sniffed out the gaps and exploited them, centre Paul Bosch’s try appeared so effortless and came off a Newman break.

Hey, but this is our website, let’s talk about our boys. Mark Farr, Hugo Lambrecht and Herbie Mayosi(and then SP Blakely, Andre van Vuuren and Frank Charlie) were solid in the scrums. Mayosi, stung into action by the fleet footed running of Farr in the Tuesday fixture, weighed in with a break of note and a ‘visionary’ one-handed skip pass, which had the Maties scrambling in cover defence.

Lock Lungelo Payi was an immense physical presence and partner Graham Knoop showed polish, the contrast to Payi’s workmanlike performance. The loose forwards were as usual sublime, Captain Fantastic Justin van Winkel standing out above standout players Ryan Williams and Whalied Heyns. Just watching this man for ten minutes is exhausting. His work rate is phenomenal.

The halfback pairing of Rhidaa Damon and Dimitri Catrakilis once again combined well, and when Damon was replaced early in the second half, Kyle Wickins relinquished nothing. The Roux cousins, Danie and Jaco, combine well with Riaan van der Vyver and spur each other on to greater heights every week.

Young lock Ryan Olivier has adapted well to the challenges of SLA, and has surprised few with his rise to prominence in this league. It may have been an adaptation at the beginning of the season for this talent, but he grows in enormous leaps and bounds with every outing, and the last seven days have done no harm at all to his game and reputation.

In a chat with the writer after the match, assistant Maties coach Solly Goosen, a modest and warm man congratulated False Bay and said they deserved the victory.

False Bay co-coach, Kevin Musikanth said in a communication to his charges today, “while the rugby Gods turned their back on us 7 days ago at Varsity stealing 3 points from us when we so deserved them so, we realised that we would get them back and what a way to do so. What character, grit and determination you guys showed on the park yesterday. Never mind having to actually pinch myself time and time again through the build up to the game, that we were actually playing Maties and then once the game started that we were actually competing with Maties and then all of a sudden we were almost beating Maties and then BOOM!”

BOOM indeed.

All that to say, and we haven’t even touched the Vics game of Tuesday.

Lots to talk about there, but only two things that need to be highlighted. The final score was 59-38 and secondly, it was a sight of majestic, thundering beauty to see prop Mark Farr ghost through a gap, shimmy, then shammy, sidestep and waft, before passing the ball to Snoopy Knoop who funneled it to prop Frankie Charlie, who emulated Farr and the move ultimately resulted in a try by lock Ryan Olivier.

A perfect homage, one may say to their scrumming coach Keith Andrews, he who put galloping props on the map, who was proudly sitting in the crowd.

False Bay travel to Durbell on Saturday. Fill your tank, load the family up and come down and watch.