Durban High School ended one of their longest droughts against KZN tier-1 opposition when they beat Westville 25-24 in an error riddled yet exciting away match.
With just three minutes of playing time left, highly rated DHS scrumhalf Sanele Nonhamba slotted a crucial conversion from the touchline, a BMT moment that put his team two scores ahead at 25-17. Westville then threw the kitchen sink at DHS and eventually produced a 7-pointer of their own but by then time was up. The jubilation amongst the DHS players at hearing the final whistle was a clear indicator of how much the victory meant to them and how much tension build up they were finally able to release because it had been such a close affair with the lead changing hands a few times and the result hanging in the balance until the end.
Westville got off to a bright start as far as scoring was concerned. There was purpose to their first phase play with big loose-forwards Zane Heyneke and JP Pelser making an impression as ball runners. Within 10 minutes the home team’s flyhalf Jared Lombard had landed three penalties to grow their lead to 9-0.
Westville’s lineout was a concern but it was the DHS scrumming technicalities that will be best remembered of the setpiece problems of this game. On a number of occasions DHS conceded binding penalties before the Westville scrumhalf even had a chance to put the ball in. Ironically DHS’s first points came from a scrum issue when Westville were adjudged to have committed an offence. With the score at 9-3 Westville’s Lombard missed a penalty awarded directly after a scrum engagement.
Halfback hero Nohamba had a very eventful match and he couldn’t have been in his coach, former Sharks scrumhalf Scott Mathie’s good books towards the end of the first half when he was sinbinned for a late charge that cost his team a further three points as Lombard extended the lead to 12-3, where it remained until the break.
In spite of the conditions being dry without much humidity or wind to speak off, the passing in this match was of low standard in general and contributed towards numerous handling errors and a lack of continuity. The best ball in hand play of the half happened on the stoke of halftime when DHS backs Cham Zondeki (15), Luthando Buthelezi (14) and Onke Jiba (13) combined very well to produce serious go-forward on the right, before “School” used the entire width to the left to almost put Pepsi Buthelezi in for a try in the corner. A well-executed tackle into touch by Westville wing Tonny Mahlangu denied the star flanker a finish the move deserved.
DHS missed a long range penalty early in the second half but shortly thereafter left wing Tonderai Ndudzo produced the moment of the match via a memorable 50-meter run. As part of a set move from a scrum, he joined the line at the inside centre channel and broke through several attempted tackles before racing into space. As he entered the 22 he identified that the defender ahead of him and intelligently he looked for a support runner to offload to. With no one close enough, Ndudzo altered his running line and pressed on towards the goal-line, showing good strength to hold off the tackler and get over a super individualist try. This brought DHS right back into it at 10-12 down.
A few minutes later DHS’s Cham Zondeki also had a very good carry that also saw him breaking tackles before being high tackled from behind. His team were not able to profit from it when the attempt at goal was missed but there now ominous signs that DHS could hurt Westville from anywhere on the park if hosts were not alert and didn’t improve their first time tackling.
Fifteen minutes into the half, Westville’s lineout finally cost them on the score sheet. A poor throw lead to a turnover as DHS flyhalf Gert Coetzee collected the loose ball and made useful ground at the expense of more slipped tackles. The Horseflies recycled and got it wide as they forged deep into the redzone. Here Westville prop Philemon Lepoka came up with a driving tackle to destroy the momentum, only for the next arriving Ville player get pinged for coming in from the side. Nohamba wasted no time taking the quick tap and his dart would have required a professional foul of sorts from an opponent not yet 10-metres back to prevent the nippy no.9 from scoring his try in the corner. Even with Nohamba missing the kick from an acute angle, the Horseflies were in front for the first time at 15-12.
That lead lasted only seven minutes before Westville opened their own try-scoring account. An exit that seem to take an age to carry out was partly charged down by Westville, giving a chance to JP Pelser to gather the ball, storm forward and unleash replacement centre Jaco van der Berg who literally scored from his first touch of the ball.
DHS gained the lead straight away when they first won the kickoff aerial contest and then a penalty at an ensuing ruck which Nohamba banged over from 42-metres out to make it 18-17 to the visitors.
The match was not a compulsory attendance one and Westville were struggling for inspiration in spite of the best efforts made by the few schoolboys who had stayed to support. Their players’ lack of cohesion and passing seemed to reach new lows in the second part of the half and it was not a big surprise that a poor pass during this patch eventually cost them the match. Their idea to run the ball from inside the 22 seemed like a good initiative, but once an in full flight fullback Hanru Naude was made to stretch for a transfer that he could only get finger tips to, a turnover was imminent. Naude lost his balance in his desperate and vain effort to control the ball, knocking it on. A DHS player then hacked it toward the tryline and centre Jiba won the footrace in traffic to gather it and power over for the 5-pointer, which later became seven and the winning points.
At 25-17 Westville refused to give up the fight and flank Dominique Rivalland almost got a try with time left over to chase a winner but he was hit hard on the line and knocked on. Soon afterwards centre Brogan Boulle twisted out of a tackle and was able to force his way over from a low body position. Lombard added the extras but DHS had done enough in the build up to eat away all the remaining time, giving them a result to cherish in their 150th celebration year.
A touching moment followed as DHS headmaster Leon Erasmus joined the big “School” circle after the game, sending out a visual message that special things are happening at DHS.
@GreenBlooded: Agreed, I found that boys who were badly injured usually ended up being Ref’s as they didn’t want to play hockey and stay in rugby. Not all, but most. Guys like you it’s to stay fit and be involved, what better way than being on the field close up ;-)
@GreenBlooded: Is there an age restriction for becoming a ref?
And can one volunteer to do touch line duty in KZN?
@Rhino_67:
It’s a question of availability. They may have other matches to get to – such is the shortage of refs you can find yourself reffing a school match at 12.30 and a club match at 15.30. That’s in Durban where things are very busy. In Midlands the guys are always keen to do touch duty for the 1st team. The schoolboys who have passed out do AR for the 2nds, 3rds, U16A etc.
@Grasshopper:
Rugby Refereeing is an official sport at College. You can get colours, honours etc for it. More schools should formalise this. Glenwood have a few highly regarded refs on staff – so just a case of making it happen. We need more refs. This is one way to make it happen. Cast the net wide, most will throw it in within a year but some will stay and 1 or 2 will go on to be top level refs.
@Grasshopper:
At Glenwood is was always the U15A captain who was the official first team TJ. That would the U16A nowdays.
@Gungets Tuft: Totally agree. Refs don’t have eyes in the back of their heads and can make mistakes too. We need to encourage youngsters to become refs too. The whole disgusting treatment of Craig Joubert means there are probably fewer boys keen on it. I reckon they should add it as a sport onto every schools extra-curricular activities. I know a few, including College, have a few boys doing it.
@Rugger fan: Catch 22 – if you want better refs, you have to shut up about the refs
Apparently it happened up at Merchiston yesterday afternoon, visiting father getting properly bolshy about the ref and then threatening a Mudrat father. It’s pathetic.
Here’s the challenge – before you criticise another ref, pick up a law book, pass the exam and the fitness test, ref a match at that level. If you’re not willing to do that, then sit back and enjoy the rugby just for the sake of it.
I can’t pass the fitness, because they use a stopwatch for the sprints and not a calendar, so I’ll be the chilled ballie in the stands …
Normally the 2 / 3 refs stay for AR duty on the 1st XV. Ive noticed more and more that for the Tier 1 games – there are Society refs doing AR duty for the 2nds too.
I agree that there should be appointed AR’s for the Tier 1 matches. But again – if there are not enough refs – and they get abused for reffing – then there is unlikely to be a glut of newbies wanting to get involved.
@Rhino_67: In my day it was an honour to run the touchline, in fact you were given the official school flag and appeared in the 1st team photograph.
@Rhino_67: Greenblooded is the highly qualified ref amongst us, I am just a UKCC level 3 coach
@Horsefly: Couldn’t agree more. There are two society refs from the previous two matches so why not get them to stay on and do some touchline duties. Im sure @Grasshopper or @Greenblood would have some answers for us around that suggestion.
@Horsefly: Not sure about the Durban refs – but up in the Midlands – the refs do not get any pay for SBR.
@Rhino_67: Thanks for explanation. I know without the Reffs rugby can not be played and all of us get frustrated at the reff sometimes. it was disappointing that they used school boys as touch judges. Pay the reffs a bit more and I am sure they will not min running touch or use the reffs that was involved in the previous two games.
@Horsefly: the penalties were for a variety of enfringements on your tight head side. Not binding, scrumming in and pulling the opposition Loosehead down. I’m not sure why you are upset with these calls as the DHS tight head had been on the receiving end of the Westville Loose Head – Donovan Grant at 2 previous encounters. I wasn’t at the preliminary trials but based on a number of unbiased observers, this was indeed the case there as well. It was a great match and DHS deserved the victory and the game in general was well refferee’d. DHS have worked hard for a number of years and a victory like this is very sweet-especially since it was on Westville’s home ground. I have also gone on record previously after watching the Team at St Stithians saying that they will be one of the best Teams in KZN this year. Good luck for the rest of 2016.
@ Henkies: it was a nail biter to watch. I got a bit upset with the reff
as I could not make out what the penalties at scrum time was for. I was sitting with a friend of mine that reffs a bit and even he could not see what the problem was but I was stoked when School eventually started to play. In my friends opinion School should have won more comfortably because they looked the more dangerous side by far in the second half. On a more personal level I want to congratulate School’s Fly half that went to play scrummy in the absence of Nohamba. He did a sterling job of getting the ball down the backline. School is blessed to have such talented players. The Captain Ryan Davel also needs a mention, he really leads by example.
@Henkies: Absolutely nothing on the Affies game, just results buried deep down. Why are those and the DHS results not hot news? The Westville Twitter account has been super quiet for the past few weeks since swimming season ended…
I also noticed that Dixons. Maybe there was an issue with the Java script or local twitter account server needed a reboot perhaps ?
I was looking for a write up about this game. Curiously on the Westville website and Facebook page there was nothing about this game or the Affies game. Lots of praise for the Hockey results vs DHS. But nothing about the rugby, i wonder why??? Maybe the oke responsible forgot to put up the reports…..
Well done School, so happy for our friends across the Berea. I find it a bit disrespectful from Ville to not have the game as a compulsory. No wonder the pics I was getting from friends looked like a tiny crowd. Keep up the good work School, just not too much good work for the Berea derby
Thanks for the great write up Beet – I felt like I was right there watching the game while reading.
It’s been a hard road for us Horseflies the last 8 years or so. We’ll quietly enjoy and celebrate these wins. Was anyone at the game – Horsefly ?