After being on the back foot for much of the second half, Grey High produced a remarkable comeback in a heart-stopping finish to defeat Framesby 35-28 in their King Price Derby Series schools rugby encounter at Framesby in Gqeberha on Saturday.
With just six minutes left, the visitors found themselves trailing 28-21 but then used their dominant forwards to power over for two converted tries to transform that scoreline into victory, their first win at the Framesby ground since 2017.
After the teams changed over deadlocked at 14-14, Grey quickly took the lead through a try by Blake Parker, but from then on the home side had the better of the half as their forwards often marched metres forward by mauling effectively from the lineout platform.
As they dominated territorially, it allowed big flank Franco Olivier to power over for a score-levelling try next to the posts and they took the lead with 10 minutes remaining when a clever kick ahead saw Johneton van Rooyen dot down and Miles Feltham add his third conversion.
It was a crucial score, but then Framesby were found guilty of too many infringements, which allowed Grey to move deep into their territory as they kicked for touch from the ensuing penalties.
The visiting pack showed they could maul equally effectively and hooker Micah Wessels forced his way over for their fourth try, and flyhalf Nathan Trytsman held his nerve to slot the conversion with five minutes left (28-28).
That passage of play was repeated a few minutes later and as Grey drove hard for the line, they were finally awarded a 5m scrum with the final hooter having sounded.
This time they ran the ball to their close runners and eventually the heroic Framesby defence could hold out no longer and Daniel Naude crashed over for the winning score, Trytsman landing his fifth conversion.
Earlier, Framesby scored first through a penalty try from a lineout maul, Grey receiving a yellow card, but the visitors quickly hit back as they broke through the Framesby backline for tries by Anfred Jansen and Michael Nyandoro.
Towards the end of the first half, Framesby captain David Matyani outwitted the Grey defence from a 5m scrum, racing over to make it 14-14 going into the changing rooms.
From then on, there was never much between the two sides, but those Framesby mistakes, paired with Grey’s forward power, allowed the visiting team to secure their second straight win over their arch-Gqeberha rivals.
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