Zimpapers Logo

Paul Munyuki Sports Reporter
THE Rams of St John’s College yesterday lit up the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival when they showed class in their 21-18 last-minute win against Falcon College in the final game of day four. Marlborough pulled a shocker with a 19-14 win over Watershed College while Prince Edward Tigers came from behind to grab a 28-13 win over Kyle College.

The Churchill Bulldogs continued with their winning run.

The Samoa Under-20 side, who are in the country for the World Rugby Under-20 Trophy, took a break from their schedule to watch some of the best rugby playing schools in Zimbabwe.

Falcon College

v St John’s College

A close game that lived up to its expectation as it kept the crowd on their feet but it was the Rams of St John’s who celebrated a 19-18 win over Brandon Dawson’s Falcon.

The Rams ended Falcon’s unbeaten run dating back to last year’s event when they won all three games and started this year’s edition on a high.

Going into the half time, the Rams were leading 7-6 but it was in the second half that the game swung with both sides exchanging the lead in the thriller that saw the Samoa Under-20 rugby side invading the pitch to help St John’s celebrate their last-minute converted try.

Marlborough

v Watershed

Earning their first win in the festival after falling 22-5 to Churchill on Monday, Marlborough coach Jay Gumbo said they were not expecting to win.

“It came as a surprise to us that we won the game because we were just looking at playing a good game and make sure we execute our basics right and when we were tied 7-7 I never really thought the game would end with us in a good position.

“We were making a lot of mistakes at breakdown, our defence was questionable at times but in the end it turned out to be a close but great win for us.

“We never really thought we would play at Jubilee (the main) Field and that came as a shock to us as well,”

Prince Edward

v Kyle College

The Tigers came from behind to get a comfortable 28-13 win over Charles Jiji’s Kyle College centre Tinotenda Zvishiri top scoring as he weighed in with 18 points to aid the Tigers win.

Kyle College took a 10-0 lead in the first 15 minutes of the game through a penalty and a converted try, but the Tigers worked their way round the Kyle attack with Zvishiri scoring their first try.

The centre had two tries and a 100 percent kicking record at goal with four conversions. Prop Ashley Makodza made sure Shuan de Sousa’s side went into the break with a lead as they led 14-10.

Prince Edward maintained the momentum in the second half scoring two more converted tries before Kyle slotted in one more penalty.

Churchill

v St George’s College

The Bulldogs maintained their unbeaten run at the festival and yesterday’s win came against bitter rivals St George’s College in a 28-10 victory with the Dragons playing second fiddle throughout the match.

Churchill were fitter, quick to the ball and presented a much better game compared to their 22-5 win over Marlborough on Monday with coach Geoff Madhake bagging another big win this year.

“I am so proud of the boys, they worked hard for this because after the Marlborough game we went back to fine-tune ourselves and we came out a better side as the boys played good running rugby.

“In defence we were able to turn over the ball into our favour and it was good to see the boys work as a unit in all units despite that most of the boys in this team are new and I guess on Monday it was all because of stage fright,” he said.