Queen's lose to Dale
Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:48
Queen's in action in 2010
Queen's College lost 21-8 to a determined Dale College this past Saturday in King William's Town.
The hosts played with the kind of doggedness and courage that is reminiscent of the Dale College teams of old and Queen's College simply had no answer to what was an inspiring performance.
Dale won this tense fixture 21-8. Results in fixtures of this nature are often determined by the group of players that adjust quickly and accurately to the referee's interpretations. The referee is the judge, jury and executioner and is seldom swayed by boisterous players who think they know best. This past Saturday was a case in point and the Queen's College First XV was the team to come off second best.
Dale College opened the scoring in the fourth minute when they capitalised on a poor pass from the Queen's College halfbacks and pounced to score a fortuitous try through SA Schools centre, Andile Jho. Former SA Schools scrumhalf, Bangihlombe Kobese converted.
Queen's College responded with some industrious play and were rewarded with a kickable penalty in the sixth minute, which JP Smith converted. Some poor skills from Queen's College allowed Dale College to regain possession from the restart and score in the corner through their SA Under-18 High Performance fullback, Siviwe Soyizwapi. Kobese failed to convert the eighth minute try.
Dale College then dominated possession and put themselves into some good scoring positions, but were let down by their own inaccuracy. Queen's College, on the other hand, were guilty of not executing the most basic of skills and were their own worst enemies on many occasions.
They had numerous opportunities to kick the ball into touch and slow things down, but instead searched for the extra five metres, missed touch as a result and allowed Dale to run back at them. This basic error happened over and over and over again! The result was this continuous barrage of red and black into the Queen's College 22m area which inevitably led to numerous penalties in favour of Dale College. Kobese converted one such penalty in the 26th minute. Queen's College trailed 3-15 at the break.
The second half started much like the first with the visitors producing some good, enterprising play. However, they also remained inaccurate and gifted their opponents the ball when they should have gone on to score points. Dale opened the second-half scoring with a well judged penalty from Kobese in the 45th minute.
Queen's College continued to lose valuable territory with inaccurate kicking, but also through players being caught out of position. Dale employed a 'kick-'n-chase' gameplan in the second half and Kobese was instrumental in the plan's accurate execution. Kobese added another penalty for Dale in the 58th minute. Queen's College would score an unconverted try with less than five minutes to go in the match, but were already dead and buried.
Queen's College were not at their best on the day. They succumbed to the pressure that was being applied by a hungrier Dale College side and lost. Aimless kicking, player positioning and general inaccuracy was their downfall and they will now reflect on how they relinquished an impressive record that saw them win nine games in a row against their old friends, Dale College.
Many good Queen's College teams have lost in King William's Town and this year would be the same. However, revenge can be sweet and Queen's College have an opportunity to upset the apple cart when they play Dale College in 2011 on their 150th Reunion Celebrations. What a humdinger that will be!
By Hayden Buchholz
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