Two more wins at Woodburn Stadium for the Villagers teams.
On Friday evening The Land Rover Durban Hillcrest Villagers traveled up to the Woodburn Stadium in Pietermaritzburg for their 2nd round clash against PMB Collegians.
After resounding victories in the 1st round, the talk in the week leading up to the match was to not underestimate their opponents as they were sure to be a force to be reckoned with on their own turf.
This seemed to be the case as the Villagers 2nd XV battled to get any sort of rhythm against a gutsy PMB Collegians 2nd side. With Villagers squandering a number of opportunities throughout the match, they managed to score at crucial stages to keep the home side in check. A late surge by PMB saw them stage a bit of a comeback only for Hillcrest to hammer the nail in the coffin with an excellent try from Villagers Outside back Gareth Lovell. The game ending in a hard fought 31-17 victory to Hillcrest.
The difference on the night, between these two teams was without a doubt the efforts of the Villagers centre Jakes de Jager and lock Martin van Rooyen who won the backline and forwards man of the match, respectively.
In the 1st XV match, the game got off to a fast paced start with Villagers keeping ball in hand and stretching the opposition all over the field, this was credited with an early try by JP Brown through excellent support play. PMB Collegians were not to be pushed around and tried their best to get back into the game with some physical work at the collision points. However Villagers managed to score just before and after half time which took the puff out of the hosts and sealed the match off with a flurry of tries to walk away with a 48-0 victory.
In a game that could have been made to be hard work, the excellent combined leadership and individual performances of Henkie Groenewald and Brian Lewis was the catalyst to this result. Villagers hard-man, Brian Lewis, only recently returning from injury after a lengthy spell on the sidelines after breaking his jaw. These players won backline and forwards man of match for the 1st XV.
All in all, another great set of results for the boys from Hillcrest Villagers Rugby club. The Villagers 1st and 2nd XV will be host to Durban Mets this Saturday at the Durban Shongweni Club. 2nd XV kick off at 14:00 and the 1st XV kick off at 15:30.
The Turaco Energy Hillcrest Villagers 3rd XV will play this week aswell, they take on Westville Old boys at 19:00 on Wednesday evening at the Durban Shongweni Club.
Come down and show your support to your local teams
