{"id":73450,"date":"2025-05-26T16:14:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T14:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=73450"},"modified":"2025-05-26T16:14:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T14:14:36","slug":"nico-malan-mutes-marlow-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=73450","title":{"rendered":"Nico Malan mutes Marlow challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Enzo Machaba, of Nico Malan, on the offensive against Marlow. Photo: Abrie Theron.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blitz Nico Malan<\/strong> wing Reagan Stone<\/strong> collected a brace of tries to help his team register their second win in a row over their Nxuba rivals Marlow Agricultural<\/strong>, in Humansdorp, on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The home team led 14-0 at the break and, although Marlow got on the board through a penalty try, the result was never seriously in doubt as Nico Malan, led by impressive No 8 Pietman Kleinhans<\/strong>, powered over for two more tries to win 26-7.<\/p>\n

Both sides were guilty of errors, but this particularly stymied the efforts of Marlow, whose attacking moves were often stunted by those mistakes.<\/p>\n

It was a day of celebration for Nico Malan, who added the victory to their 31-27 win of 2024 after previously suffering six defeats in a row against the Wolramme<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Marlow started strongly and was quick to move into Nico Malan’s 22, earning a penalty and a lineout five metres from the line.<\/p>\n

But, in a scenario which became all too familiar during the match, they knocked on at the lineout and Nico Malan were able to run their way out of trouble.<\/p>\n

With flyhalf Leighton Lawrence<\/strong> dictating matters for Nico Malan with his astute tactical kicking, the Humansdorp side opened the scoring from a five-metre lineout.<\/p>\n

Hooker Janu Janse van Rensburg<\/strong> got on the end of a pass to drive his way over the line, with Lawrence adding the conversion.<\/p>\n

In the 22nd<\/sup> minute, Nico Malan flank Neil Lategan<\/strong> broke through for a tremendous run deep into the Marlow 22. After the hosts recycled the ball, an excited Stone called for possession and simply outpaced the cover defence for a brilliant try, also converted by Lawrence.<\/p>\n

Marlow narrowed the gap to seven points after the break when Izak Steyn<\/strong> initiated a move from a scrum near the halfway line.<\/p>\n

His great run down the blindside saw him offload to scrumhalf Gian Steyl<\/strong>, and he threw an inside pass, but an early tackle by Nico Malan saw the referee having no hesitation in awarding a penalty try.<\/p>\n

However, despite coming under pressure at scrum-time, Nico Malan took a grip on the match, and they were not about to relinquish it.<\/p>\n

In the 42nd<\/sup> minute, a handling error gave the home team a scrum on Marlow\u2019s 22 and Kleinhans broke brilliantly to the right for Stone to again outstrip the defence for another memorable score.<\/p>\n

That pair was again involved in a move as Stone cut through the defence and Kleinhans took the ball up to near the Marlow line.<\/p>\n

From a tap penalty five metres out, burly prop Waldo Krige<\/strong> fought his way over the line to score under the poles, ensuring that the bragging rights remained with Nico Malan.<\/p>\n

In other matches, Brandwag<\/strong> faced spirited opposition from Westering<\/strong>, but eventually took control of the contest to cruise to a 53-24 triumph, while Pearson<\/strong> was pushed all the way by Muir College<\/strong> before prevailing 21-14.<\/p>\n

SCORERS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nico Malan 26 (14) \u2013<\/strong> Tries: Janu Janse van Rensburg, Reagan Stone (2), Waldo Krige. Conversions: Leighton Lawrence (3). Marlow 7 (0) \u2013<\/strong> Tries: penalty try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blitz Nico Malan wing Reagan Stone collected a brace of tries to help his team register their second win in a row over their Nxuba rivals Marlow Agricultural, in Humansdorp, on Saturday. The home team led 14-0 at the break and, although Marlow got on the board through a penalty try, the result was never […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":73412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/73412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}