Poorte 1sts and U/19s through to finals
Poorte's 1st and U/19 sides will be playing in the finals of the 2018 Pirates Grand Challenge on Saturday, 25 August.
Two Roodepoort Rugby Club sides (the U/19s and the 1sts) will be playing in the finals of the Pirates Grand Challenge (PGC) on Saturday, 25 August, following victories in the semifinal stages.
The U/19 and 1st teams, respectively, faced Randfontein Rugby Club and the University of Johannesburg (UJ) in the semifinals. The U/19s had by far the easier task, as the 1sts were up against a UJ side that had already defeated them twice during the season and finished top of the log with 61 points, 20 clear of Poorte with 41 in fourth place.
Poorte’s U/19 side was however still wary of the Teine boys who had already caused a few upsets en route to the semifinals. The boys from Ruimsig proved too strong a side for Teine however, and ran out 45–15 victors at the UJ stadium.
Roodepoort’s U/19 team will face Pirates Rugby Club in the final. Poorte has already beaten Pirates by 17–15, and lost by 15–19, during this season. Pirates secured its spot in the final with a strong 46–12 victory over Raiders Rugby Club.
Poorte’s 1st team definitely went into the game as underdogs in the eyes of neutrals, as UJ had homeground advantage and had already beaten Poorte 28–20 and 40–30 earlier in the season. UJ dominated the PGC this year, ending with 61 points for the season, 10 points clear of the second-place University of the Witwatersrand.
But Poorte, which had made it to the semifinals with a points difference superior to that of Wanderers Rugby Club, managed to silence all their critics. They put in a dominant performance that restricted UJ to only one try, while Poorte scored 27 points for a powerful 27–7 victory.
The 1sts will meet with the University of Potchefstroom team which defeated Wits 13–0 in their semifinal. This means that the final will be played between the two teams that were placed fourth and third on the log.
It will be an intriguing encounter, as Poorte defeated Pukke at home, but lost to the varsity boys in Potch, setting up an evenly-weighted contest. Poorte will be playing for its 10th PGC title overall, (the first since 2013), while defending champions Pukke will be aiming to repeat their 2017 triumph while going for their ninth title overall.
The finals will be played at Wits on Saturday, 25 August with the U/19s playing at 3pm, and the first team at 5pm.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at northsider@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
For free daily local news on the West Rand, also visit our sister newspaper websites
