Wanderers beat Western Suburbs 39-37 in an exciting MTC Rugby Premier League match at Suburbs Park on Saturday to strengthen their title aspirations.
The victory saw Wanderers moving up to second position on the log, just one point behind Reho Falcon, who beat Mariental 30-29 in another exciting encounter in Mariental.
In other matches on Saturday, United beat Unam 39-31 at the Unam ground, while Kudus shocked the defending champions Rehoboth with a 30-12 victory in Naraville.
The match between Suburbs and Wanderers was evenly contested from the start, with the lead changing hands throughout.
Wanderers eightman PJ van Lill had a great match, scoring three tries, while Suburbs’ centre Justin Nel matched him by scoring a hattrick for the home side. Suburbs’ fullback TC Losper scored 17 points with the boot, while Wanderers’ right wing Heico Prinsloo scored 14 points with the boot.
Suburbs opened their account with a penalty by fullback TC Losper, but Wanderers struck back through a try by flanker Alberto Engelbrecht, converted by Heico Prinsloo.
Suburbs immediately struck back with two tries in three minutes. From the kick off, centre Justin Nel rounded off a backline attack to dot down, while TC Losper added the conversion with his big boot, sending the ball high over the wall surrounding Suburbs Park.
Two minutes later winger Brian Haihambo charged down a clearance kick to dot the rolling ball down behind Wanderers’ tryline. Losper once again converted to put Suburbs 17-7 ahead.
Wanderers’ heavier forwards however started to impose themselves on the setpieces, while eighthman PJ van Lill created havoc with his powerful attacks, and another bullocking run saw him tearing away down the touchline to dive over in the right hand corner. Prinsloo added a great conversion from the touchline to reduce the gap to 17-14.
Justin Nel scored his second try after a long skip pass put him clear in the corner, while Losper added the conversion to put Suburbs 24-14 ahead.
But back came Wanderers, with Van Lill once again bursting over for another fine try, and with Prinsloo adding the conversion, Suburbs went into halftime holding a narrow 24-21 lead.
Van Lill completed his hattrick early in the second half, crashing over after a storming 20m run, and although Prinsloo missed the conversion, Wanderers were now 26-24 ahead.
Losper and Prinsloo traded penalties before a JM Meyer try, converted by Prinsloo put Wanderers 36-27 ahead.
Back came Suburbs as Nel dotted down after a sweeping backline move and with Losper adding the conversion, they were only two points behind at 36-34.
In the closing stages, Prinsloo and Losper each added a penalty to make the final score 39-37 in Wanderers’ favour.
At the Unam field United staged a great comeback to beat Unam 39-31, after trailing 19-7 at halftime.
For Unam, flyhalf Rodney Coetzee scored a brace and centre Granville Diergaardt one try, while fullback Marques Bezuidenhout added 16 points with the boot.
For United, prop Jaco Swanepoel scored a hattrick of tries, while flanker Frikkie Maartens, replacement forward Riaan Grundeling and flank Pat Kotze each scored one try. Eighthman Winmar Rust added nine points with the boot.