Tough day for EP teams at first day of Southern Amateur tournament

Eastern Province Rugby Union clubs had a tough start at the beginning of the SA Rugby Southern Amateur Provincial Tournament hosted by EP Rugby in Humansdorp this week.

The first match saw the Eastern Province Country Districts team fall to an on form SWD, with a number of tactical errors seeing the home side go down 7 to 29.

The EP invitational team, which played against Western Province early afternoon put up a brave fight and were even at 12 points a side going into half time. Western Province, however, proved to be the more conditioned side in the second half, and ran in four tries in just 15 minutes.

EP Invitational gained their second wind in the dying minutes of the game, to claw back to a respectable 24 points, but were unable to close the gap. The final score for that match was 36 points to 24.

In the final match of the day, EP Urban went up against a determined Boland team. It was a close game with both sides playing their hearts out at the pristine Vosloo Park fields in Humansdorp.

Boland gained the edge over EP going into the break 10 points to EP on 6.

Boland’s discipline let them down in the second half, with two players being sent off with yellow cards shortly after each other, taking them down to 13 men on the field, but EP battled to get past the determined Boland defenders. The final score saw Boland take the match 34 points to EP on 21.

The arch rivalry between Border and Border Rural also saw the two teams battling it out for bragging rights during the first day. Although both teams got off to a slow start, it was Border Rural who eventually dominated the first half, going into the break 15 points to nil against the Urbancounterparts.

Harsh words must have been spoken in the Border change room at half time because they came back firing on all cylinders, closing the gap to just 1 point 15 minutes into the second half.

A penalty conversion saw Border Rural pull ahead briefly, but a converted try on the final whistle by Border saw them walk away victorious 24 points to Border rural on 21.

The next matches will be played on Wednesday, 27 August 2014.

10:30 EP Rural vs Border Rural

12:15 EP Invitational vs EP Urban

14:00 SWD vs Border Urban

16:00 Western Province vs Boland