MATIES BATTER BAY
There was an air of expectancy amongst the Bay supporters who by far outnumbered the Stellenbosch students, despite a 50 kilometre trek to the scenic town. False Bay's Third Team had delivered a credible performance in their loss and the club's Second Team were unlucky to lose by one point. This, together with the first round victory created a feeling of anticipation.
The Maties are a proud club, with a talent pool so deep one would have to decompress if one dived to the bottom. With two of their stars, Paul Bosch and Conrad Hoffman playing for Western Province the next day, a 'weakened' Maties set about building a performance of power, pace and precision.
Their tactic of quick throw-ins from touch kicks meant that the game was literally non-stop, and the pace at which they played, especially in the opening quarter, illustrated a pattern which was bound to deliver high returns.
To be fair to the Bay, had the rub of the green gone the other way, the scoreline would have been far narrower.The result was in hindsight never in question, but the excessive points difference would have been more palatable. Firstly, the Maties policy of pace was absorbed by the Bay and when that moderated to a relativley acceptable speed, the Bay had not yet conceded any points.
Indeed the first three tries came off Bay errors, dropped balls and huge chasms in defence. Maties scored 26 points before False Bay posted a try in return, but this could have been otherwise if the law regarding the tackled player was more clearly applied. According to many pundits, the attacking team has favour in the tackle situation, and quite fairly. On three occasions in the first half hour, the Bay were on attack on the Maties 5 metre line with numbers aplenty, yet referee Marc van Zyl quizzically ruled in the defending team's favour.
This writer is not suggesting that the result was influenced by these decisions, that would be a stretch. Where it did serve to influence was in the scoreline. Had the Bay only conceded two of the soft tries in the beginning and scored two of the three opportunities disallowed, their mindset would have been different.
On the other side of that coin, False Bay, by their own admission, did deliver their poorest performance of the season. Inaccurate passing, individual below par performances and porous defence was a hallmark of their game.
Maties were all class. Power running, change of angles and keeping the ball alive were the features of their game. In all they ran in 9 tries to the Bay's 2. Standout players for themwere scrumhalf Johan Herbst, wing Louw Schabort, flyhalf Coenie van Wyk and centre Pieter Stofberg.
For False Bay lock Graham Knoop tried his heart out, wing Danie Roux was exciting, indeed he scored the try of the day from 60 metres out with his trademark power running. Cousin Jaco also produced some sparkling moments and centre Marc Davids was outstanding. Young lock Ryan Olivier was injured early in the match, but by then had produced some strong running which was later missed in his absence. The Bay's man of the match was undoubtedly captain Justin van Winkel, who turned ball over at will and was unbiquitous in all play.
Fals Bay have a bye on Saturday and then return to Coetzenberg for their second last match of the season next Wednesday. They have enjoyed a dream return to the SLA and will want to end the season on a high.
