By Sue Miles
Durban — Steady rainfall throughout most of the second day of the Standard Bank Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival made play difficult with the slippery ball.
Despite the weather, the excellent turnout of spectators were entertained by some exciting play from the six evenly contested fixtures.
Three teams go into the final day having won both their matches – Durban High School (DHS), Hoerskool Monument and Glenwood.
DHS and Monument will face each other in the midday game on Monday, with Glenwood playing Dr EG Jansen, who have lost both their games this festival.
Games of the Day
GLENWOOD 15 – 14 SELBORNE COLLEGE
The final game of the second day had Glenwood against Selborne, with plenty of emotion in the game as they had not met one another for a number of years.
Glenwood was first on the scoresheet when they were awarded a penalty in front of the posts, about 40m out. With the difficult conditions prevailing a kick for the post was sensible and Marx obliged, scoring the three points.
Thereafter there were a number of flare-ups with emotions running high. Pressure by both teams resulted in Selborne centre Blake Schwulst scoring far out. An excellent conversion by Kyle van Wyk saw Selborne take a 7-3 lead with the break.
The second half saw Glenwood starting to dominate in the close encounters. With 20 minutes remaining a mis-kick by Selborne found Renaldo le Fleur out wide and his pace carried him over for Glenwood’s first try. With the conversion missed, Glenwood led 8-7.
Selborne was on the attack but knocked on and Glenwood pounced. The ball was passed out to left wing Mnelisi Gamede who changed his direction running across the field to score in the right-hand corner.
It was well converted by Frederick Marx, which put the local side ahead 15-7 with 10 minutes remaining.
With only five minutes left on the clock, Selborne made a concerted effort with drive after drive being thwarted by Glenwood’s defence, until eventually flank Gabriel Kriel got over. This was converted from wide out by Van Wyk for a 1-point difference.
Once again it was left to the last quarter of the game to determine the final result. This time it was Glenwood that triumphed 15-14 to win the tough game.
DR EG JANSEN 15 – 20 DURBAN HIGH SCHOOL
With both territory and possession belonging to DHS against Dr EG Jansen, it was inevitable that DHS would get points on the board first.This they did when flyhalf Deano Boesak scored a good try, evading the cover defence. He did not convert his try, but DHS went into an important 5-0 lead.
A rolling maul of about 15m ended when DHS hooker Christian Everitt came up with the ball after crossing the line. Again, the conversion went wide, and the Durban boys held a 10-point lead.
Continued pressure ended when a kick ahead by TholithembaSibisi resulted in an EG Jansen player diving over him, giving away a penalty try for a 17-0 lead.
With time up on the clock for the first half, EG Jansen were awarded a penalty which vice-captain Jaydon Bantom converted. The KZN side lead 17-3 at the break.
The second half saw EG Jansen up their game as they applied more pressure. After 10 minutes they were rewarded when Swart went over in a flurry of bodies, to narrow the gap to 10-17 when the try was converted by Bantom.
Dr EG Jansen continued with their pressure and again the scored with flank Nathan Mathee diving over after a lineout. The conversion was wide but the scoreline had narrowed to 15-17 in DHS’s favour. DHS then increased their lead with eight minutes remaining when Boesak added a penalty to make the score 20-15.
The score remained the same until the final whistle although again both sides came close to scoring in a tight and exciting finish.
KEARSNEY COLLEGE 12 – 10 HOëRSKOOL WATERKLOOF
This was another game where the conditions were very difficult, with heavy rain early in the first half. The rain did stop, but muddy and soft conditions underfoot made handling difficult.
Early pressure by Waterkloof led to a try, with fullback Reuven Ferreira diving over. The conversion went wide, but Waterkloof took an early 5-0 lead.
The score did not change before half-time due to most of the game thereafter being contested between the two 22m lines. Kearsney had one attempt at a penalty from near the 10m line and kicker AyabongaMngaza had the distance but the ball just went wide.
Thirteen minutes into the second half Kearsney pressed and froma scrum the ball went wide to wing Lihle Maqhugula who dived over in the corner to level the scores 5-5.
A mis-kick by Kearsney resulted in a kick forward by Waterkloof, Herman Viljoen gave chase and dotted down to take the score to a 10-5 lead.
The game livened up as Kearsney immediately went back on the attack. A number of attempts to cross the line went amiss.
In the final minute, a scrum near the try-line resulted in Kearsney winning the ball as Waterkloof had one less in the scrum due to a yellow card. From the scrum the ball went to Mbulelo-Junior Mcengwa who went over near the upright. It was converted by Matthew Bergset for a last gasp 12-10 win for the hosts.
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