Bishops ended their season with a hard-fought 22-21 win over Cape Town southern suburb rivals Rondebosch at the Piley Rees on Saturday.

The hosts dominated the early stages, showing enterprise on attack, but Bosch's scrambling defence prevented them from breaking the deadlock.

Rondebosch then delivered a double blow, totally against the run of play, with two converted tries by wing Clyde Martch sandwiched between the sending-off of flyhalf Jean Naude.

But Bishops' star wing Andre Manuel's scored a try in the final minute of the first half to narrow the gap to nine points.

It was a resurgent Bishops team who opened the scoring in the second half, with a converted try from lock Sam Mitchell from close range.

Rondebosch were then awarded a kickable penalty and with Naude still in the sin bin, fullback Riley Louw stepped up. However, he failed to extend the lead, with a horribly skewed kick off the side of his boot.

Both teams found their way to the tryline again, with lock Imraan Andrews dotting down for Bosch and No 8 Saud Abrahams for Bishops, to make it it 21-19.

From the restart, Bishops secured the ball in opposition territory and were awarded a penalty just inside the right-hand touchline. Without hesitation, the captain pointed to Smit, who thumped the ball over the crossbar for his side's first home win over Rondebosch since 2008.

Results:

Bishops 22 Rondebosch 21
Wynberg 34 SACS 5
Marlow Landbou 11 Paarl Boys' 10
Noord-Kaap 22 HTS Louis Botha 21
Landboudal 23 Wilgerivier 15
De Aar 25 Bulfontein 19

By Mariette Adams

Photo: Luke Walker/Gallo Images