WINDHOEK – Having slightly lost its years of dominance in domestic rugby for more than five years, Trustco United Rugby Club is finally back from obscurity and has reclaimed its rightful place among the country’s top clubs.
The Olympia outfit galloped past traditional rivals Wanderers coming out tops 20-18 in a hard fought finale of the coveted National Rugby Premier League, at the Hage Geingob Stadium on Saturday in Windhoek.
In what turned out to be an intriguing final where occasional counter-attacks proved vital, the White Stallions were the first to draw blood in the low-scoring but otherwise entertaining finale of the country’s topflight mini league.
After trailing by 5 points, United crawled their way back into contention after two unconverted first half tries by Riaan van Zyl and Lean Stoop (10-0). However, United reduced the gap via a penalty (10-3)
United’ s skipper Winnmar Rust put his team within close range when he goaled two successive penalties to give his side a glimmer of hope going into the changeover (10-9). United came out with guns smoking at the restart and wrestled the lead away from their cross-town rivals when Naude Neethling bulldozed his way to dot down his team’s first try of the match changing the scoreboard to 14-10.
Rust atoned for his earlier miss when he failed to convert Neethling’s try when he dispatched a penalty neatly through the posts to stretch his team’s lead to 17-10 before fly-half Robbie Dickson added a drop goal to extend United’s lead to 20-10.
Wanderers’ Van Zyl put over a penalty to reduce the gap to 20-13 midway in the second half, which gave the White Stallions some hope as the Tunschell Streets Boys pushed hard for the elusive try that could have settled the scoreboard but it was not to be despite a try by centre Handre Bezuidenhout in the dying minutes of the match.
As fate would have it, Heico Prinsloo missed the target from the decisive resultant conversion that could have swung the tie in Wanderers’ direction. Final score: United 20-18 Wanderers.