Pearson withstood a courageous Marlow fightback to clinch a narrow 26-24 victory in their schools rugby match at Marlow on Saturday after leading 19-0 at the break.
The first half was marked by the visiting Gqeberha team snapping up every chance which came their way to run in three tries and establish what looked like a commanding lead.
Pouncing on every Marlow mistake, Denilo Jordaan, Matthew Els and Sipho Myataza scored tries for Pearson, with Keano Beling adding two conversions.
An indication of the run of play in the first half came when Marlow were on the attack in the Pearson 22, but an interception saw the visitors sprint away for a try at the other end of the field.
It was to Marlow’s credit that they never gave up the fight, showing the competitive edge for which they are well known.
As their forwards began to dominate up front, they came back into the game, with several powerful driving mauls putting Pearson on the back foot.
They also started to take control of the scrums and were able to build the momentum which allowed them to put multiple phases together to go constantly on the attack.
Flyhalf Cole Hurter capitalised on the greater share of possession and some good tactical kicking saw Marlow beginning to spend more time deep inside Pearson’s territory.
His accurate boot played a significant role in Marlow’s fightback, while flank Adrian Joubert was one of the standout forwards with a massive work rate.
Fullback Du Preez Vermaak (15) also started to threaten Pearson by finding and creating space on the counterattack from their kicks downfield.
Joubert crossed for two tries and others came from Vermaak and CJ Botha, while Hurter landed two conversions.
The home side levelled the score at 19-19 before Pearson fullback Jordaan, one of their outstanding players this season and a player who needs no second invitation to take a gap, took a quick tap from a penalty and outpaced the Marlow defence in a thrilling 70m dash for the line to score the winning try, converted by Beling.
That made it 26-19, but Marlow refused to go away.
They crossed for one more try, but the conversion flew wide and Pearson survived to win a memorable match between two gutsy outfits.
In other matches, Brandwag and Nico Malan had comfortable wins over DF Malherbe (109-0) and Daniel Pienaar (38-8), respectively, in Kariega. — Additional reporting by SuperSportschools.com
The Herald
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