Matabeleland Warriors. . . . . . .(0) 10 Harare Sports Club. . . . . . . . .(19) 36 LION Larger National Rugby League defending champions Harare Sports Club (HSC) beat Matabeleland Warriors 36-10 in a match played at Hartsfield Rugby Ground yesterday.
VITALIS MOYO SPORTS REPORTER
The match was the highlight of the day at the venue that hosted three league matches. It was the visitors who made their intentions to win clear within two minutes of play when Teddy “Boxer” Hwata scored a try after taking advantage of a lapse in concentration by the Warriors backline, following it up with a successful conversion to put HSC 7-0 up.
The game was fiercely contested in the middle of the field with both sides having bulkily built sets of forwards who were not afraid to have a go at each other, with Warriors captain Lloyd Machanjaire having to walk out from the field after breaking his finger.
The battle between the two continued, but it was the Harare side that had the better of it as Stephan Hunduza dogded tackles from the Warriors backline to place the ball under the post for HSC’s second try of the day.
Two more points were added through the boot of Hwata who put the ball in-between the posts as he successfully converted to give his side a 14-0 lead. Warriors showed sings of determination to get back into the game, but were undone by poor ball handling going forward which cost them a number of try-scoring opportunities.
An in-form Hwata stretched the lead for his side three minutes before the break when he scored a penalty goal to take a 19-0 lead at the break. Warriors looked like they could pull themselves back into the game when they started brightly in the second half with Brian Dube bursting into speed on the flank to score a try two minutes upon resuming play, but could not convert.
HSC replied with a try of their own through Simbarashe Chirimuta who stole the ball in the middle of the field and burst into speed to plant the ball under the posts with Hwata converting just moments after the Warriors try and it was 26-5. Biselele Tshamala scored Warriors’ second try of the day as the home team tried to pull themselves back into the game with Dube failing to convert to put the score at 26-10.
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The Warriors resistance died down towards the end of the second half as HSC scored another try through Eurry Maphosa. Hwata scored a penalty and converted to put the score at 36-10 at the final whistle securing five points for the visitors.
In other matches played earlier on at Hartsfield, second-placed Old Georgians beat Western Panthers 27-17 while Old Miltonians (OMs) fought back in the final stages of the game to beat Zvishavane Bulls 35-18.
The win by OMs saw them climb up to fourth position on the log table.
