Greater Knysna rugby triumphs on home turf

KNYSNA NEWS - Greater Knysna Rugby Club's first team put up a good fight and came out on top against long-time SWD President’s League team Sedgefield Eagle Stars, in front of a home crowd at the Hornlee sports field on Friday 15 March.

The match was a fierce one and provided entertainment in the form of massive hits, powerful scrums and line breaks for the 300-strong crowd.

Great cooperation between Knysna’s Oyama Rawana and Don Marco Samuels created space for Dumani Royi to score the team’s first try. Rawana, however, failed to convert the try.

Eagle Stars followed this up with continuous attacks, but the rock-solid defence forced them to kick a penalty to close the gap. Greater Knysna, which were only recently promoted to the SWD President’s League, responded immediately with a try in the corner by Denilo Wildeman after great dominance by the forwards. Rawana made quick work of the conversion to extend the team’s lead to nine points.

It took the visitors the remainder of the first half to get their try after a defensive error by the hosts. This also took the teams to the halftime break.

The second half took both teams to the brink of scoring, but good defence efforts by both teams kept the score sheets unchanged.

Load shedding finally brought the game to an end 15 minutes early. Referee Warren Luiters called the game with Greater Knysna declared winners with a score of 12 to eight. Rawana was named man of the match.

Greater Knysna will host the former Western Province Gold Cup contenders False Bay Rugby Club in their last pre-season fixture at Loerie Park before the President’s League kicks off on 6 April.

The second teams kicked the evening off earlier. Greater Knysna drew first blood with a penalty before Eagle Stars won the three points back through a penalty of their own. Eagle Stars took the lead just before halftime with a try.

The visitors started the second half on a high note, scoring early. They also scored their last try just before the end of the second half to give them a 22-3 victory.

The match on Friday 15 March between Greater Knysna Rugbly Club and Sedgefield Eagle Stars. Photo: Supplied