FALSE BAY RUGBY CLUB

In a physical, entertaining encounter, hosts Brackenfell RFC surprised the more fancied False Bay RFC to run out 38-31 winners on Saturday, after trailing 14-19 at the break.

Visitors, False Bay, were led onto the pitch by their standout wing of the last twelve years, Danie Roux, playing in his 150th match for the Bay.The Brackenfell pitch is the graveyard of many a team, any number of reasons the nails in their coffins. The narrow pitch, which rapidly runs out of space like an ebb tide; the apparent list of the ground running down from left to right; and in the case of Saturday the wind making the winning of the toss critical, common traps for visitors and vital aids for a home team which plays and practices on that turf every week. Wily coach Thinus van Rensburg confidently held these factors in mind and prepared his team to deliver a shock result.

Motorvaps False Bay tightened their grip and mastered the conditions to run out easy winners in their match against Kuilsriver at Constantia on Saturday. The Bay scored seven tries to the two of their opponents in their 47-13 victory.

The match promised to be a spectacle, with newly promoted Kuilsriver determined to cause an upset at Fortress False Bay…until a tempest hit Constantia an hour before kick-off, leaving the fields waterlogged and the pitch unfirmWet weather is all too often a great leveller, which would have further motivated the visitors, as if that was at all necessary. Their hosts, with a number of players returning, were all too aware of this, but had their own motivation for victory. One, for instance, is their hitherto unbeaten record.