Kwagga Rugby in Texas

Kwagga Rugby in Austin

2002 Kwaggas

AUSTIN TOURNAMENT 2002

Match Reports of 2002 Tournament

Saturday April 13th

10:00am

Kwaggas vs Fort Hood

01:00pm

Kwaggas vs Galveston RFC

03:00pm

Kwaggas vs Alamo City

Sunday April 14th

12:00pm

Final vs Mystic River RFC

Kwaggas vs Fort Hood

On Saturday, the Kwaggas opened the defense of their title against Fort Hood, a fit military side. The Fort Hood side started with confidence but at the first scrum they were easily pushed backwards at speed by the Kwaggas pack and this set the tone for the whole match. The Kwaggas then began to dominate possession and opened the scoring when superb inter-passing put Daniel Olivier into space and he scored the opening try. This was quickly followed by Tiaan Brand who had too much speed for the cover defense and this try was converted by Jaco Van Zyl. Minutes later AJ de Jager split the defense to stroll under the posts for the third Kwaggas try which Jaco van Zyl converted. Just before halftime Frans Van Dyk crashed over the try-line to give the Kwaggas a 24-point lead at half time. The Kwaggas continued their scoring spree in the second half and the Fort Hood team was powerless to prevent the Kwaggas running riot. As a result tries were scored by AJ, de Jager, Daniel Olivier [2] with conversions by Daniel Olivier and Pretorius . At the final whistle the Kwaggas were convincing winners by 43 points to nil.

Kwaggas vs Galveston RFC

In their second match the Kwaggas were drawn against Galveston RFC. As in their first match, the opposition struggled to hold the Kwaggas pack and could not compete with the overall speed of the Kwaggas backs. In the first half tries were scored by Steve Watt, Jaco Van Zyl and AJ de Jager [2] with Jaco van Zyl kicking one conversion. At halftime the Kwaggas had established a comfortable lead of 22 points to nil. In the second half the Kwaggas continued their domination and scored their fourth try through Daniel Olivier within minutes of the restart. Shortly afterwards Steve Watt scored a try which he converted. Galveston managed to advance into the Kwaggas half through a series of penalties and finally elected to kick a penalty, realizing that their chance of scoring a try were minimal. AJ de Jager promptly scored a try from the restart which Joe Griesel converted and then Sam Cameron chipped over the defense, re-gathered the ball to score the final try and the Kwaggas had secured a 46-3 victory.

Kwaggas vs Alamo City

Late in the afternoon the Kwaggas played their semi-final game against Alamo City who had been showing good form throughout the tournament. The Kwaggas began the game with perhaps too much over confidence and as a result the game was played in the middle of the pitch for a long time. Alamo City then surprised the spectators by taking the lead after poor defense by the Kwaggas. This spurred the Kwaggas to a higher level of intensity and Frans van Dyk leveled the scores just before half time. In the second half, realizing that this game was too close for comfort, the Kwaggas raised the pace of the game. As a result Alamo City now struggled for possession and were forced to defend almost continuously. Despite their valiant attempts, the Alamo City defense was breached through tries by Danie Olivier, Theo van Wyk, Emmett Holmes, and Jacques Naude with Jaco Van Zyl being successful with three conversions. At the final whistle the Kwaggas were winners by 31 points to 5 points and had secured their fifth/sixth? consecutive appearance in the tournament final.

Final vs Mystic River RFC

In the final, on the Sunday, the Kwaggas met Mystic River RFC, a first Division club from Boston, who had a strong pack with excellent backs, well marshaled by their fly half. The previous day Mystic River had defeated Austin RFC by 17-7 to reach the final. The Kwaggas gained the early initiative through a Jaco Van Zyl penalty, but minutes later Mystic River leveled the scores through a penalty. The Kwaggas pack was slowly gaining the upper hand through their superior mauling and in the lineouts where Cronan Mchugh and Mark Hughen were proving to be totally dominant. In addition the Mystic river pack was struggling to contain the Kwaggas eight in the scrums and thus their backs were not obtaining the clean possession which they needed. This resulted in the Kwaggas pressuring the Mystic defense and, from quick second phase ball followed by a clever inside pass, Tiaan Brand went over for the opening try which was converted by Jaco van Zyl. However, shortly afterwards the Kwaggas were down to 14 men when Daniel Green was sin-binned and Mystic River kicked the resultant penalty to reduce the deficit to four points at half time. After the restart another successful penalty kick put Mystic River within one point. This forced the Kwaggas to raise their game and a strong driving maul saw Craig Leslie crash over for the second Kwaggas try which Jaco van Zyl converted. Minutes later Jaco Van Zyl kicked a penalty to extend the Kwaggas lead to eleven points. Despite this deficit the Mystic River never gave up and a strong series of driving rucks put them within close range of the Kwaggas try-line and then from a tap penalty they were able to drive over the Kwaggas try line and the successful conversion put them within four points of the Kwaggas. From the restart, clever kicking by Theo van Wyk put the Kwaggas within yards of the Mystic try line and from a driving maul off the lineout a Kwaggas score seemed imminent but a dropped pass allowed the Mystic winger to counter attack. Mystic seemed to have an overlap but superb cover defense by the Kwaggas backs, led by AJ de Jager, contained the attack. From the resultant ruck, the Kwaggas secured possession and the referee blew the final whistle to give the Kwaggas their second consecutive championship win.

Match Report done by Texas RFU President Mr Dave Jenkins.
Special thanks to all the players who's names is not mentioned in this report.
Thanks for all your effort in this tournament.
Kwagga Groete

2002 Kwaggas Champions