BY CHRIS TAVONESA IN ESIGODINI
ESIGODINI – Prince Edward turned the tables to beat Falcon 31-15 and register a famous away win in Esigodini in one of the most anticipated fixtures in Zimbabwean sport.
Main Field had proved to be a bogey ground for the men from Harare, who at some stage went for a decade without a victory in the heart and soul of the Matabeleland bush. On Saturday, the result – in which the Tigers lion’s share of possession – showed that the tide has turned in Zimbabwean schoolboy rugby.
The Maddogs’ tenacity has demystified.
In front of Zimbabwe national team coach Brendan Dawson, an ex-coach of Falcon, PE played free-flowing rugby, scoring three tries from their own half, in the first stanza. They could have surged even had they not missed a penalty conversation.
Falcon lost two set-pieces when attacking the PE 22-metre line at critical moments and the Tigers made them pay the prize ruthlessly, running the ball continuously from deep within their own half.
Eventually, physically and mentally, PE dominated Falcon, despite a couple of isolated runs either side of the halves that gave the host brief hope. But PE had too much strength for Falcon. All this being without their “Godfather”, the champion coach Shaun De Souza, also the Zimbabwe Under-20 gaffer, who missed the trip to trip to Esigodini due to family commitments.
Psychologically, this will be big for PE, considering that Falcon had beaten the Tigers’ other perennial rivals – St Georges and St John’s – at the Derby Day in Rolf Valley last week.
*Rugby enthusiast and coach Chris Tavonesa, a former Kyle College and Alexandra Sports Club scrum-half, filed this quick match report for us from Falcon College.
