At Kings Park, Glenwood accounted for a 7 tries to 2, 59-12 demolition of Maritzburg College. The Green Machine has now not lost in this inter-city derby since 2010.
Glenwood established their attack-minded mood with an onslaught from the first kick-off. An early offence involved a ball transfer between the two of the three most influential Glenwood players of the match, namely No.8 Marco Palvie and left wing Ilunga Mukendi. Palvie excelled as a powerful ball-carrier able to exploit space and link up with teammates. He’s linebreaking ability was sublime and he was outstanding on defence as well. Mukendi’s finishing was impressive. He had several long runs that showed off his pace which along with an ability to cut inside and shake off would-be tacklers using good balance and strength to stay upright, proved unstoppable on the day.
In spite of their overwhelming dominance, the first points of the match only came in the 10th minute via a penalty from Glenwood’s other significant contributor, flyhalf Jerome Bossr who scored 27 points via 5 conversions, 4 penalties and a try.
Soon it was 6-0 after a second Bossr penalty success. Poor exiting along with the inability to secure their own lineout ball contributed to College spending the first quarter of the match pinned back in their own half. From a College clearance kick that failed to find the safety of touch, Mukendi, who is hoping to represent the KZN Craven Week team for a second year running capitalised to score the first of his hat trick of tries.
In the 18th minute Bossr’s angled tactical punt landed in no-man’s-land and the evil bounce turned out to be a kind one for chaser Mukendi who made light work of beating the last line of defence to grow the Glenwood lead to 18-0.
College struck back in the 27th minute when flyhalf Juan de Wet cleverly worked a half gap and offloaded a superbly timed backhand flick to inside centre Charl Frackers who breached the defensive line and raced in for the first of the Red-Black-White’s two tries. Fullback Ruben van Blerk kicked the extras, making it 18-7.
Glenwood ended the first half on a high. From an attacking 5-metre scrum, patient work produced the desired end result when big tighthead prop Khutha Mchunu twisted out of a tackle and crashed over under the sticks. 25-7 at halftime.
Initially the halftime talk seemed to work for College. A much higher level of urgency saw them cut the lead down to 25-12 in the 39th minute when a sustained redzone attacking period concluded with right wing Xolisa Guma doing well to avoid the attention of covering defenders and ground the ball over the line.
From there on out it was Glenwood all the way. They scored 34 unanswered points through clinical attacking play that exposed their opponent’s defensive weaknesses. First a Bossr penalty kick made it 28-12, then Mukendi’s final try set up by a big hit and turnover won in the middle of the park by Palvie, saw the score increase to 35-12. Next outside centre Donny du Randt used two good football touches to kick the ball goal-side of the College defence before he cracked on the pace to outsprint all others in the race to get to the in-goal area first and dive on the ball. It was magnificent individualistic try. Du Randt scored a second try after being the end recipient of good work and handling by prop Christopher Klopper and Palvie once more. Bossr landed another penalty and later ended scoring matters when he collected a loose ball behind the defence after a College handling error. He showed a clean set of heels to get over in the left-hand corner before he slotted the difficult conversion. Final score 59-12.
Given their respective starts to the season, the margin of the result came as a surprise. For Glenwood, who had already suffered defeats to KZN private schools Kearsney and Michaelhouse amongst others, they will hope this is the turning point in what had been a poor season before this big win. For College who had shown promise up to now, it’s back to the drawing board to identify and quickly correct areas where things went so badly wrong on this big stage.
| GLENWOOD | MARITZBURG COLLEGE | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christopher Klopper | 1 | Tanaka Chikwezvero |
| 2 | Connor Botha | 2 | Samuel Swanepoel |
| 3 | Khuthazani Mchunu | 3 | Andrew Reintges |
| 4 | Dylan Weideman | 4 | Bjorn Olivier |
| 5 | Lencho Brynard | 5 | D’Niel Immelman |
| 6 | Austin Brummer | 6 | Kelton Thunder (C) |
| 7 | Nama Xaba (C) | 7 | Durang Atembe |
| 8 | Marco Palvie | 8 | Craig Glover |
| 9 | Jordan du Preez | 9 | Kyle Bowman |
| 10 | Jerome Bossr | 10 | Jean De Wet |
| 11 | Ilunga Mukendi | 11 | Xolisa Guma |
| 12 | Ruan van Rensburg | 12 | Charl Frackers |
| 13 | Donovan du Randt | 13 | Matthew Kriel |
| 14 | Ruan van Rensburg | 14 | Kudzaishe Munangi |
| 15 | Jaydon Morgan | 15 | Ruben Van Blerk |
@RBugger: The interesting thing there is that most players can be coached to be explosive and quick, “genuine” pace, however, cannot be coached.
So any decent athlete can be explosive and quick – not all will have genuine pace though.
Palvie is deceptively quick but it’s his vision & understanding of the game that gives him the edge. Must agree with hopper, never thought Palvie was a glory boy … in the early years he was Staples’ understudy and had to work really hard to keep up. A pity we don’t have Staples in the setup now – would be interesting to see if he is any better than Palvie is at the moment – somehow I don’t think there would be much in it between the two.
@Beet: Explosive speed and power, that is for sure – better to be quick over 20 than fast over 100
@RBugger: For most positions I think having pace over a short distance is key to being a good rugby player.
@Grasshopper: He looked to have good toe to me, when playing against College?
@Rugger fan: I have never seen Palvie be a ‘glory’ boy, always been quite quiet doing his thing. I don’t think he has the type of speed Jaco Coetzee had, but certainly can break the line and has the skill and vision to put quicker players through. To me that is his job, so playing bloody well.
@beet: Good to hear about Palvie having no glory – just like his game on the w/e against College – I would have liked to see him put his ears back and back himself twoce – but tries resulted to others.
This has been bandied about in the past that he was a “glory boy” – but that is not showing this years – so kudos to Palvie.
Northwood were very competitive in the first half. The score was 17-3 at the break but the real difference maker was Palvie who had a big hand in 2 tries by Du Randt. What I really like about Palvie is there’s no glory about his play. It’s all for the team. He does something special, then looks to offload to a teammate in support. The try sandwiched in between the 2 was a good team effort scored by Morgan. In the second half, with the wind behind them GM were unstoppable. For me the big surprise of the match was at 10, where usual GM centre Maarten Holtzhausen had an outstanding game. He scored the next try after some good stepping off his left foot. He was also the kicker on the night. Then Palvie showed up again to set up Mukendi’s try making it 29-3 with 30min to play. Northwood got on the scoreboard after a huge hit on the Glenwood prop, which cause the ball to become untidy, poor pass, fumbled, kicked ahead, lucky bounces, dive over line by 10 Jasey van Kampen. 29-8. Then Glenwood cleared their bench but kept Palvie on. Tries by Xaba who was also very good, du Preez, replacements Vorster and Brough and finally Brummer, to round off the 9 tries. Very good patterns of play by Glenwood to go with good ball handling.
The Northwood no.8 Viwe Makhula did some very good things particularly excellent pick up and separation carries off the back of scrums due to his pace.
62-8 is quite a hiding, seems the ‘Green Machine’ are starting a roll. However, losing Palvie is huge……eish, poor kid just no luck with injuries…
Trust Palvie is OK. I was “watching” the game on internet feed and his name kept coming up.
Recover well.
That Palvie is a great 8 and I hope he is ok. He plays how an 8 should, in my books anyway. Roams well and links perfectly. Anyone remember Brad Ellse? Just watched him play for Maties u21 and he was blady superb, the boy has undoubted talent. He ran great lines, and has awesome pace, good to see
In form Palvie had another very influential game tonight but sadly had to be helped off by 2 medics near the end. Suspected knee injury. Very lousy.
62-8 FT Score
Just heard GW 41-8 up against NW with 15 mins to play.
@GreenBlooded: didn’t say he was right or wrong – just that he gave College every opportunity to win
jokes aside – I have only admiration for referees – a thankless task if ever there was one
@GreenBlooded:
Blind both ways 8) 
@Rugger fan:
Weren’t you once a Golden Lions ref and now a Midlands ref?
@Roger:
“the ref giving College every opportunity to win”
It is not beyond the realms of probability that the 4/5 penalties were a result of the winning team resorting to unfair means of keeping a team out that were determined to win in the dying minutes? Won’t be the first time it’s happened. Julle ouens maak my piel pap as jy so kak praat!!
@Thumper:
The referee has every right to over-rule the TJ on a goal kick. Specially when there are schoolboy TJ’s involved who sometimes don’t concentrate.
@Thumper: only saw the 1st XV game so can’t comment but what I do remember is the ref giving College every opportunity to win. He awarded College 4/5 penalties in the last three minutes but they could just not get over the line and eventually settled for the draw – swings and roundabouts heh!
@Roger: 2nds had a kick to win the game in the last minute, kick goes over, linesmen signal ball was over, ref over ruled and disallowed the kick. Short memory syndrome!!
@Roger: Sorry – was not there-can not comment – just following the thread from Thumper</a.
@Rugger fan: oh – last year was a draw if memory serves – what was the issue? I recall KES were leading by 3 and College got a last minute penalty which they converted for the draw?
Refs
8)
@Thumper: mine what? What are you referring to?
@Roger: And yours last year, shockers!!
@Roger:
Not such a great idea since it’s 100km/h from north of Howick to the Durban side of Maritzburra. You may find yourself unwittingly making a sizeable contribution to the local constabulary’s Christmas fund!
@Roger: Westville don’t report losses, against school policy…….it can be weeks until the next rugga story is posted……
@Roger: Ah perfect, I’ll make my way down to Hillbrow with my mace and pepper spray
@GreenBlooded: I notice there is a glowing report on Westville’s site about the hockey results vs Affies but they are very quiet on the rugby front
@Grasshopper: KES play Westville on 23 May at home which may be easier for you now that you have chosen the filthy lucre over lifestyle
@GreenBlooded: I usually increase my speed from 120km/h to 180km/h on the N3 so I can blink and miss it
http://www.glenwoodhighschool.co.za/sports-results-vs-college-1718-april-2015
Short and sweet. Not even a mention of the historic victory other than the result itself. Humility in victory – love it.
@Roger:
Are you coming down? I’ll introduce you to some of the Midlands refs…..
@Grasshopper: 9th May – on Goldstones
When do KES play College, I want to attend?
@Roger: You’d better be careful – there are more than one now
@Thumper: we will need it in Maritzburra – especially with those Midland refs
@Roger: haha, just bring your A game in a couple of weeks!!
@Pedantic: Against Glenwood an F, for the season thus far, played 8, won 6, lost 2. Still early and big games to come, Grey Bloem, Affies, KES and all the local sides. You can’t judge a school on 1 game or even 1 season. Just for the record College vs Kearsney, played 69, won 57, drawn 2, lost 10. If your grade 12’s beat College this year it will be 1 out of 5 (20% win/loss ratio). Fortunately both my boys won’t be professional sportsmen. Academics is far more important than rugby!! I hope your sons kicks on after school because he is the real deal!!
eish – these College boys run the risk of been downgraded from “former” to “ex” when they leave
@CRC: Fully agree, he had an outstanding game and his interplay with Palvie created a lot of go forward ball.
Very nice report, but I think mention should also be made of the Glenwood loosehead who I thought also had a very good game. He had a lot to do with the dominance in the scrums and the go forward that Glenwood got.
@Thumper: You think College’s season is better than a C at the moment?
@Pedantic: I think better for you
@Thumper: Ok … as I said the past is what it is – lets say we change that to aiming for 80% for the remainder of the season – better for you ?
@Pedantic: 60% is not good, equates to a C on a report card (but then who am I to judge).
@Thumper: The past is what it is – I don’t think there is any shame in losing to Grey Bloem, Selborne in one of their best years or a wounded and motivated Dale team.
The boys will aim to win at least 6 of their remaining matches to end with a 60% success rate – not too bad for a team who in their first year of high school rugby only managed to win 2 games. Progression is good, regression is not.
To answer your question – yes, Glenwood is generally the yardstick in KZN and I think they illustrated that on Saturday.
@oldschool: Surely Glenwood can’t be your yardstick. What about Grey, Selborne or Dale? The season isn’t panning out too well,KC have lost 4 already and it’s only the start of the season. 8)
@Thumper: fortunately for Kearsney , doesn’t matter how the rest of the season pans out ….. we will always have Glenwood !!!
@oldschool: Lost to Grey on TV and pumped Hilton on TV last year. You must be glad there will be no TV coverage of the MHS game!!
it seems that every time College play in front of a live TV audience they get pumped !! maybe should stop accepting invites for televised games ….