A highly successful ninth Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival wrapped up with two teams which remained unbeaten at the festival and the announcement of three players who each received bursaries to the Sharks Academy for 2017.
Valued at over R100 000 each, recipients are Glenwood prop Renier van Rooyen and two Dale College players, fullback Aphelele Fassi and centre Sibulele Mbana. This includes a contract with the Academy in 2017, accommodation and a tuition bursary with one of its education partners.
In announcing the awards Etienne Fynn, managing director of the Academy, said the standard of rugby this year had been excellent, as had come to be expected of the festival.
“Even though there were some high scoring matches, this was more about the quality of play, than that the teams had been mismatched,” Fynn said. “We believe that a player who shines at school doesn’t necessarily have the attributes to play senior rugby. But we believe these three boys will meet those requirements.” He said there had been an excellent pool of talent on display at the festival this year.
At the end of the festival two teams remained unbeaten: Selborne College from East London and Glenwood High School from Durban. Dale College went into the final day unbeaten, but were overpowered 5-32 by Glenwood in their third day clash. Hosts Kearsney were also unbeaten until Monday, but went down 10-24 to HTS Middelburg in the final fixture of the festival. Middelburg’s win against the hosts was their only victory at the event.
The three-day event was well supported with excellent crowds who were able to enjoy a high standard of competitive rugby in good weather. It was a successful event for organisers and sponsors Standard Bank, Nashua Durban and the Sharks Academy.
GAME 5 – KEARSNEY COLLEGE – HTS MIDDELBURG
The final match was between unbeaten hosts Kearsney College and HTS Middelburg. After losing their first two games at the festival, Middelburg came on determined to do better. This they did by outmuscling Kearsney in the tight-loose and showing great commitment with the ball in hand.
Middelburg opened the scoring early in the game with a kick ahead which flank JC Pretorius touched down just ahead of the Kearsney defence. The conversion was wide but it gave the visitors an early 5-0 lead.
Halfway through the half after Kearsney had been under pressure, they broke out of their 22m area and a penalty was awarded which James Sutherland slotted to close the gap to 3-5.
Some good handing between backs and forwards ended with left wing Waldo Conradie showing great pace to go over in the corner and give Middelburg a 10-3 lead.
Despite intense pressure by the Middelburg forwards, Kearsney held on with committed tackling to prevent any further score before the break.
Five minutes into the second half, right wing Japie Kleynhans showed commitment to go over close to the corner. This time fly-half Riekert Barnard slotted the conversion to extend the lead to 17-3.
With four minutes remaining, Middelburg captain Pretorius scored his second try of the match by bursting through the defence in broken play. The conversion was missed but Middelburg had increased the lead to 22-3.
In the final minute, Kearsney No 8 Brady Erlich made a break getting close to the line but the ball was held up. However from the scrum thereafter flank Dylan Richardson dived over for the final try, which was converted by Sutherland.
Middelburg won the match 22-10, which was closer than the score suggested; but they made more of their chances to finish off the festival with a crowd-pleasing game.
Score
Kearsney: Try: Richardson; Conversion: Sutherland; Penalty: Sutherland
HTS Middelburg: Tries: Kleynhans, Conradie, Pretorius (2); Conversion: Barnard
GAME 4 – GLENWOOD 32 – 5 DALE COLLEGE
The penultimate match of the festival saw two unbeaten sides, Glenwood and Dale College face up against each other. The heavier Glenwood forwards laid the foundation for them to go through the festival unbeaten.
It was Glenwood who scored within minutes of the kick-off. Marco Palvie broke through, catching Dale defence napping to dot down close to the poles. Martin Holtzhausen added the extra points for Glenwood to go into an early 7-0 lead. Holtzhausen added a further two penalties to increase the lead to 13-0.
Dale managed to get into the Glenwood 22m area and they applied some pressure for fullback Aphelele Fassi to go over. The conversion went wide but the gap had narrowed to 5-13.
Just before the break centre Holtzhausen broke through the defensive line to run 30m to score under the uprights. He made sure with the conversion for the Durban lads to lead 20-5 at the halfway stage.
The Glenwood forwards continued to dominate in the tight phases and the backs kept mistakes to a minimum. This made Dale work very hard to maintain pressure. They did get into the Glenwood red zone on a few occasions but lost possession to allow Glenwood to get back on attack.
From broken play, flank Kevin Smit went over and later wing JC Conradie scored in the corner. The second of these was converted for a commanding 32-5 lead, which they held until the final whistle.
Scorers
Glenwood: Tries: Holtzhausen, Conradie, Palvie, Smit; Conversions: Holtzhausen (3); Penalties: Holtzhausen (2)
Dale: Try: Fassi
GAME 3 – MARITZBURG COLLEGE 8 – 47 EG JANSEN
The KZN side Maritzburg College, who had not yet won at the festival, were again on the losing end. They were playing EG Jansen who had a definite advantage in both size and pace, however. College let themselves down by missing vital tackles. As the game progressed, so EG Jansen used their pace to good effect. But College’s tackling improved in the second half.
For the first quarter College kept EG Jansen at bay, except for their first try which was scored following a College mistake when prop Rehann Baumann barged over under the poles, converted by Ginter Smuts for a 7-0 lead. College’s fullback Ruben van Blerk converted a penalty to narrow the gap.
It was then an EG Jansen show. Whenever College got close to the EG Jansen line, they were repelled and Jansen were back on attack. EG Jansen were quick to act on College mistakes and the missed tackles proved costly. Jansen scored another four tries before the break, all converted by Smuts to lead 35-3 at the break.
College tackling improved as they prevented EG Jansen from scoring more than two tries in the next quarter. Smuts missed one conversion to leave Jansen 47-3 in front going into the last quarter.
The second half was a better showing by College, giving away the two tries, but scoring one of their own by centre Ayanda Duma for the final loss of 8-47; but 5-12 in the second half.
Scores
EG Jansen: Tries: Beaton, Beytel, Baumann, Du Preez, Van der Merwe, Zeelie, Smuts; Conversions: Smuts (6)
Maritzburg College: Try: Duma; Penalty: Van Blerk
GAME 2 – HOERSKOOL FRAMESBY 66 – 17 HOERSKOOL NOORD-KAAP
The second match on the final day of the Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival saw Framesby from Port Elizabeth taking on Kimberley’s Hoerskool Noord-Kaap, both teams having their two festival games so far.
Framesby gradually got stronger as the game progressed. They were quicker to the loose ball, missed fewer tackles and were superior competing at the breakdown. It took just three minutes before Framesby opened the scoring with a penalty by fullback Riaan van Rensburg. He added another penalty for Framesby to lead 6-0.
Going into the final quarter of the first half, Noord-Kaap put their first points on the board with a penalty by fullback Cameron Hufke.
Framesby then dominated the last few minutes of the half, scoring two tries. The first of these was by flank Bernard McDonald from a lineout and the second by prop Viaan Wolmarans, both converted by Van Rensburg. On the stroke of half-time, Van Rensburg converted a penalty for a 23-3 lead as they went into the break.
Dominance in the second half kept Framesby on attack as they scored another eight tries to eventually win the game. Noord-Kaap seemed to have no answer to the waves of attack by the Framesby backs, and they were a disconsolate side.
But the boys from Kimberley did have the final say with two tries – by flyhalf Chadwin November and centre Galdwin Niewenhuyzen – converted by Hufke, for Framesby to eventually win 66-17.
Scores
Framesby: Tries: Van Rensburg, Kleyn, Kleinbooi, McDonald (2), Wolmarans, Verwey, Marais, Tait; Conversions: Van Rensburg (6); Penalties: Van Rensburg (3)
Noord-Kaap: Tries: Van Niewenhuyzen, November; Conversions: Hufke (2); Penalty: Hufke
GAME 1 – SACS 10 – 10 SELBORNE COLLEGE
SACS, the oldest school in SA, playing against Selborne College from East London, spent most of the first half in Selborne’s territory. The second half was played mainly between the two 22m areas. The eventual 10-all draw was probably a fair reflection of a very intense clash.
A tight first half saw SACS leading 7-0 at halftime. It took Selborne 12 minutes before they played out of their half, but too many mistakes and a good defence by SACS prevented Selborne making any in-roads on SACS.
Two relatively easy penalties were missed which may have put SACS 13 points in front. Eighth-man Alex Halvorsen was on the outside of a line movement and he had a clear run to the Selborne line. The extra points were added by flyhalf Kyle Boyd for the seven points.
A penalty by Jordy Hop early in the second half put SACS 10-0 in front. This was followed a little later by a penalty kicked by Jason Rubenheimer to open Selborne’s score.
The second half saw Selborne improving in their defence and handling, but SACS defence did not waver until four minutes from the end when Selborne prop Leon Lyons barged over. The conversion, under pressure, saw Raubenheimer split the uprights to level the scores.
Selborne was unbeaten at the festival, having won their game against HTS Middelburg 22-14 on the first day, and Maritzburg College 18-7 on Saturday. SACS beat Hoerskool Framesby 19-13 on Thursday and then lost to hosts Kearsney 39-36 in a close encounter which saw the lead changing six times during a superb game of running rugby.
Scores
SACS: Try: Halvorsen; Conversion: Boyd; Penalty: Hop
Selborne: Try: Lyons; Conversion: Raubenheimer; Penalty: Raubenheimer
DAY ONE RESULTS
Kearsney College beat Höerskool Noord-Kaap 27-17
HTS Middelburg lost to Selborne College 14-22
Glenwood beat Dr EG Jansen 14-13
Maritzburg College lost to Dale College 16-25
SACS beat Höerskool Framesby 19-13
DAY TWO RESULTS
Hoërskool Framesby lost to Dale College 17-46
Glenwood beat HTS Middelburg 17-6
Kearsney College beat SACS 39-36
Maritzburg College lost to Selborne College 7-18
Dr EG Jansen v Hoërskool Noord-Kaap 40-17
Very worrying signs for College. Going to be another long season for them.
@GreenBlooded: agreed, with 10 minutes to play those 3 points would have been vital, you called it almost immediately. but the scrummie had other ideas!… a highly entertaining match nonetheless!!!
About 8 mins from time, with Selbourne 10-3 down, they had a sitter of a penalty on offer in front of the sticks. White line fever replaced common sense unfortunately. Would have made the difference for Selbourne between ‘undefeated’ and ‘won all games’.