A vocal crowd cheered Dale College on to a significant win over close rivals Queen’s College in a bruising encounter in King William’s Town on Saturday afternoon.
Dale amazingly emerged victorious 17-3, managing to stop Queen’s from crossing the try-line despite defending for large parts of the game.
“I think we defended as much in this game as we have the entire season, but hats off to Queen’s, they kept coming at us and our boys did very well on defence and that’s what won us the game ultimately,” said Dale coach Grant Griffith. “It was really a massive team effort and I am proud of them.”
It was a mixture of heroic defence and superb broken play from the home side that allowed them to run in two long-range tries and shut Queen’s out over the 80 minutes.
“A strong facet of Dale rugby has always been our broken play, so if we get a turnover or pick up a loose ball we will always be dangerous,” claimed Griffith.
Heavy hits and and plenty of turnovers were on show, while the bigger Queen’s team will wonder how they were unable to score a try, despite having superior possession and territory during the match.
Dale’s very impressive season thus rumbles on, with this being their sixth consecutive victory and 10th overall in 11 matches, and sees them as the only major side still unbeaten on the Border this season.
“We just need to keep our feet on the ground, we are a very humble team, which helps us in the long run, and we will just continue to take it game by game,” said Griffith.
The match began with the very physical Queen’s side making good early inroads into Dale’s half, supplied with good front foot ball from their forwards.
However, Dale’s defence held strongly, which saw them open the scoring after 17 minutes.
This was a fantastic solo effort from scrum-half Sinesipho Dlongodlongo, who received the ball near the halfway line, stepped past a number of defenders before showing a great turn of speed to sprint away and dive over under the posts.
His brother, flyhalf Siphosethu Dlongodlongo, duly converted, giving Dale a 7-0 lead.
With six minutes to go to the break, Queen’s finally registered some points on the board after more strong work in Dale territory saw them awarded a penalty at the breakdown, with centre Christopher Hollis slotting the simple conversion from bang in front. Dale hit back from the restart as pressure at the breakdown forced a penalty on the 22m to the right of the posts and Siphosethu stepped up to stretch the lead to 10-3.
At halftime, Queen’s, on attack in Dale’s half, lost the ball in the tackle, allowing Dale wing Siyanda Am to pick up and fly down the right-hand touchline, before cutting in and going for an opportunistic effort from about 60m out.
After the conversion these proved to be the final points of the match. The second half ended tamely and will be remembered more for its missed chances than anything else.
Heroic defence sees Dale win again
Dale amazingly emerged victorious 17-3, managing to stop Queen’s from crossing the try-line despite defending for large parts of the game.
“I think we defended as much in this game as we have the entire season, but hats off to Queen’s, they kept coming at us and our boys did very well on defence and that’s what won us the game ultimately,” said Dale coach Grant Griffith. “It was really a massive team effort and I am proud of them.”
It was a mixture of heroic defence and superb broken play from the home side that allowed them to run in two long-range tries and shut Queen’s out over the 80 minutes.
“A strong facet of Dale rugby has always been our broken play, so if we get a turnover or pick up a loose ball we will always be dangerous,” claimed Griffith.
Heavy hits and and plenty of turnovers were on show, while the bigger Queen’s team will wonder how they were unable to score a try, despite having superior possession and territory during the match.
Dale’s very impressive season thus rumbles on, with this being their sixth consecutive victory and 10th overall in 11 matches, and sees them as the only major side still unbeaten on the Border this season.
“We just need to keep our feet on the ground, we are a very humble team, which helps us in the long run, and we will just continue to take it game by game,” said Griffith.
The match began with the very physical Queen’s side making good early inroads into Dale’s half, supplied with good front foot ball from their forwards.
However, Dale’s defence held strongly, which saw them open the scoring after 17 minutes.
This was a fantastic solo effort from scrum-half Sinesipho Dlongodlongo, who received the ball near the halfway line, stepped past a number of defenders before showing a great turn of speed to sprint away and dive over under the posts.
His brother, flyhalf Siphosethu Dlongodlongo, duly converted, giving Dale a 7-0 lead.
With six minutes to go to the break, Queen’s finally registered some points on the board after more strong work in Dale territory saw them awarded a penalty at the breakdown, with centre Christopher Hollis slotting the simple conversion from bang in front. Dale hit back from the restart as pressure at the breakdown forced a penalty on the 22m to the right of the posts and Siphosethu stepped up to stretch the lead to 10-3.
At halftime, Queen’s, on attack in Dale’s half, lost the ball in the tackle, allowing Dale wing Siyanda Am to pick up and fly down the right-hand touchline, before cutting in and going for an opportunistic effort from about 60m out.
After the conversion these proved to be the final points of the match. The second half ended tamely and will be remembered more for its missed chances than anything else.
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