Poorte finally bows to Raiders after 3 years

Defending champions Roodepoort (1st team) got their Pirates Grand Challenge campaign off to a disappointing start following a 36-32 defeat to rivals Raiders over the weekend.

What should have been a Roodepoort victory considering the home advantage and status as the front runners among club teams the past few seasons turned into a nightmare as Raiders were the ones bagging the full five points away from home. In doing so Raiders also secured their first victory over their rivals in almost three years.

Raiders got off to a flying start by scoring two quick tries in the opening 15 minutes of the game to lead 15-3. Roodepoort then bounced back with a converted try to close the gap to just five points at half time with Raiders still leading 15-10.

The second half produced an action-packed game of rugby with both sides scoring five tries in total. Raiders scored two and slotted a number of conversions as well as penalties to take the game out of Roodepoort’s hands. Roodepoort scored three tries in total, one right at the death, but it was all too late for this year’s Community Cup runners-up.

Roodepoort coach, Jorge Carvalho congratulated Raiders on the win, and added that it was not all panic stations for his team as the season just started.

“Well done to Raiders, they are a side that feeds off one’s mistakes and managed to punish us today. They caught us a bit off guard in the opening minutes of the match. From the word go we had to play catch-up rugby, which is never easy. We played brilliant at times but in the same breath also poor at times.”

Jorge added that going into this game against Raiders was tough for the team.

“Players had to catch up on work they had pushed aside while serving the club in the knock-out stages of the Community Cup in George. Mentally and physically it was tough to play three matches against the top clubs in the country in just five days. Once returning home, we had little time to prepare fully for Raiders, which always is one of our toughest games in the competition.”

Roodepoort also felt the absence of three key players in centre Byron Godfrey, fullback Chanley Williams and prop Jaco Vermeulen.

“Yes we were a bit disrupted by the injury of Byron and absence of Jaco and Chanley, but one can’t use this as an excuse. We have an exceptional squad at our disposal who gave it their all and did well,” Jorge says.

“Yet we cannot hide from it that we are a bit under pressure. We have no reason to panic as it is still a long season. The loss however, does create some pressure to qualify for the Community Cup but we have become aware that we are the team to beat. There is a big responsibility on the shoulder of the boys to prove we deserve to be in the Community Cup. I think we have proved this in the past few seasons; we now have to show what we can do.”

Roodepoort faces Community Cup champs, Rustenburg Impala away from home this coming weekend.

Point scorers against Raiders:

• Tries: Juan Shaw (2), Thys de Villiers (1), Junior Gray (1)

• Conversions: Hennie Oosthuizen (3)

• Penalties: Hennie Oosthuizen (2)

Visit the scoreboard for more club results.