Semi Final v Windsor |
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Saturday August 25, 2007 Having already won the Niagara Rugby Union A division the weekend before, the Hamilton Hornets first XV faced a familiar foe on Saturday. For the third weekend in a row the 1sts played Windsor. This time it was for the semi-final of the NRU Cup and a chance to grab some more honours in 2007. Windsor were a much stronger prospect on the day not having to field a second team. The match started promisingly for Hamilton though with the Hornets gaining Windsor territory immediately and securing a 5m line-out. From the line-out the Hornets worked a powerful maul and 8-man, Dave Rivers, crossed for the opening try. Peter Van Zyl made the conversion for an early 7 – 0 lead. Windsor came back quickly though with a penalty to narrow the score to 7 – 3. Then followed a 25 minute scoreless session in which Hamilton appeared to make hard work of the game plan. Tempers were already beginning to fray on both sides when a Windsor player was sinned binned for punching a Hamilton player on the ground. The man advantage allowed Hamilton to put added pressure on Windsor and a few minutes later Hamilton had kicked a ball out on the Windsor 22m line. The resulting Windsor throw was not straight but the referee played a good advantage as lock, Jason Dobbie, cleaned up the loose ball at the back of the line-out and made for the Windsor try line breaking a couple of tackles to score and extend the lead to 12 – 3 at half time. After the break, Windsor held on tough and struck another penalty 12 minutes in to the second held to reduce the deficit to within a converted try. It was a nail-biting finish with Windsor coming close to scoring on a couple of occasions. With 5 minutes left to play in the match, Hamilton finally started to reimpose themselves on the game. The Hornets had 3 or 4 scrums from inside the Windsor 22 and crossed the line twice only to be ruled by the referee to have been held up. The Hornets finally breached the Windsor defence when the Windsor hooker went off-side at a ruck about 10 metres from his try line. The ball from the resulting tap penalty found its way into the hands of a crashing Peter Van Zyl who broke the tackle of his opposite flanker to cross and put the result beyond any doubt. Final Score: Hamilton 17 – Windsor 6 Hamilton now move on to a cup final match against Highland in Hamilton on September 8th. Match Report by: The Hamilton Hornets always welcome new Junior and Senior members. Drop us an email at hornets@hamiltonrugby.com or call the club house at 905.575.3133
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