Kingswood outplayed in Graaff-Reinet

GRAAFF-REINET NEWS — Union's junior rugby and hockey teams battled it out against teams from Kingswood this past weekend.

The U.13 rugby team has had a difficult start to their rugby season, losing their first three matches against Muir, Westering and Karel Theron. The leading causes were a lack of fitness, tackling and just plain simple mistakes.

This did not deter the boys at all for their match against Kingswood this past weekend. Instead, they practised extra hard, concentrating on the finer details, and sometimes training four sessions a week.

This past weekend they out-competed Kingswood in fitness, skill and determination.

With each try their confidence grew, ending the match early and finishing off with a score of 48 – 0. The coach was extremely proud of them and hope they will realise their potential and start believing in themselves. The goal now is to focus on the week ahead, where they will be facing tougher opposition on Saturday against Cradock.

Try scorers were Likhona Finca, Sisipho Arnols, Siyamthanda Badiwe, Ruzhe Hendricks, Wade Edwards , Phawu Gaza. Conversions were by Sisipho Arnols.

• In other results, the U.9A team lost 5-24, U.11A drew 0-0, U.11B lost 5-47, U.13A won 48-0 and U.13B won 17-15.

Hockey

The first juniors played entertaining hockey in this home fixture against Kingswood and came away with a deserving 2 – 0 victory.

The Union girls played superior hockey throughout and maintained possession for a large percentage of the game. Some beautiful individual and team efforts made this a thrilling game to watch and both goals were as a result of great determination in the circle. Well done to Alison Kroon and Anna Pringle for managing to convert their opportunities into two lively goals.

Special mention must be made to Chloe Shires who controlled the midfield and set up some fantastic plays for her teammates.

The second junior team amazed with some wonderful hockey in their home game against Kingswood. The Union girls dominated play throughout and played beautifully as a team. It was especially encouraging to see the girls putting in some of the practised pieces successfully into play, and they came away with an incredible 6 goals to show for their efforts.

Great commitment and opportunism on attack were rewarded in the form of one goal for Sadé May, two goals for Sesethu Kotishini and three goals for Drew Dobinson. Union is exceptionally proud of both teams. They stayed hungry for the win and pushed themselves to the very end.

In other results, the U.9A team lost 1-2, U.9B won 4-0, the junior fourth team vs Kingswood's U.11B team won 4-0 and the junior third team vs Kingswood's U.11A team lost 0-2.