Fortunes say Hilton to win at Michaelhouse today
The formbook and injury count suggest Hilton will beat Michaelhouse today and record their first win against their main rivals since Brad Macleod-Henderson’s last spell as head coach in 2013. The return to full fitness of Cameron Badenhorst, a strong running fullback means that Hilton will run onto Meadows will a close to full strength team. Michaelhouse is definitely not in the same boat as far as fortunes are concerned.
*While Hilton has won five in a row, House has just one Easter win over Pretoria Boys’ High to their credit in 2016.
*While Hilton welcomed back their high profile Old Boy head coach, this year saw Michaelhouse’s highly regarded rugby guru Ryno Combrinck relinquishing his role as Director of Rugby and is now a lower team hockey coach.
*The difference maker today might be the injuries though. House will be without the likes of Aiden Schwartz, Nic Herbert, Mikael Maingard, Liam Bowmaker-Wood and Wes Turkington in a year in which they don’t have the depth they had in 2014 and 2015, their past two very successful seasons.
However this big derby is a match driven by passion and the desire to do well and this sometimes trumps all logical predictions of who ought to win.
Westville coaches need to step it up
Westville has a difficult away challenge in the form Jeppe, one of the top teams this season. Westville had last weekend off which may not have been a bad thing. For one their coaches had opportunity to attend a team building course at Affies and hopefully a lot of good came out of it. The 1st XV results have been way below expectations and there is a growing sidelines discontentment with the team tactics being employed.
Maritzburg College continue to clock up the miles and get more broadcast coverage
Just like was the case at the Wynberg 175 Festival, College supporters will be able to follow their team’s progress once again. This time Premier Interschools will TV broadcast their away game at KES in Johannesburg. It’s a match that could go either way. By the time the College boys return home they would have travelled ±4000km in little over a week.
Northwood backs have their work cut out
On their day the Northwood pack can mix it up with the best teams around however the Knights struggle to make inroads using their backs. Here the hand-speed, line-speed and general skills just do not seem to stack up well against pressuring defences. Their own defence away from the breakdown points is probably an area that received a lot of focus after the Jeppe match a fortnight ago. The in-form Kearsney outfit’s handling was top drawer during their big win against Michaelhouse last weekend. If conditions are wet underfoot and the ball is wet, it might be to Northwood’s advantage in keeping the scores close but they are without they will need a very special effort to leave Botha’s Hill with the spoils.
St Charles will be looking to extract revenge
St Charles lost narrowly to Clifton at Riverside, Durban North earlier this season and after keeping Hilton scoreless up until halftime last Saturday, they will be looking to build on that with a 70-minute performance of the same calibre when hosting their private school rivals in Pietermaritzburg.
Michaelhouse has announced their scholarships for the 2017 intake:
SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS – 2017
There are a broad range of potential scholarships awarded at Michaelhouse each year. These are merit based for scholars of outstanding academic, musical, sporting or all round ability. Awards are made to boys entering Michaelhouse in Grade 8.
The Major Open Scholarship is awarded to the top academic candidate each year in the scholarship examination. Cameron Todd Scholarships are awarded to candidates who exhibit all round excellence. Rector’s Scholarships are awarded to academic candidates who exhibit all round ability. Closed scholarships are academic scholarships awarded to candidates from traditional feeder schools to Michaelhouse. Applications for scholarships in 2017 were of an extremely high calibre and we take great pleasure in announcing these awards:
Major Open:
Jaden van der Merwe – Jan Celliers
Cameron Todd ( All Rounder ):
Gus de Villiers – WHPS
Adrien Fisher – Lynnwood Laerskool
Tom Walters – Cowan House
Cordwalles Closed:
Jack Edmonds
Clifton, Nottingham Road Closed:
Mitchell Flanegan
Highbury Closed:
Ryan Baker
St Peter’s Closed:
David Ferguson
Rector’s ( Academic) :
Ayanda Cele – Cordwalles
Akeru Fihla – The Ridge
Matthew Gibson – Highbury
Kameran Jinnah – Hellenic Academy, Harare
David Kitshoff – Cowan House
Joshua Samuels – St Peter’s Prep
Arden Scholtz – Somerset House
Alexander Vermeulen – WHPS
Music:
Luc Delaporte – Drakensberg Boys’
Tshepang Letebele – WHPS
Sport:
Kenton Melville – Chelsea Prep
Connor Oellermann – Merchiston
Aiken Olivier – Lynnwood Laerskool
Derrick Pienaar – Anton van Wouw
Richard Upfold – St Stithians Prep
Joshua White – Umhlali Prep
Congratulations to them all and we look forward to having them in the class of 2021.
@oldschool: Thanks for the feedback.
Glad to hear the 1st team kept at it. Yes the powers that be have realised you have to fix the problem from the bottom up thankfully, and it has been good to see the u14 and u15 age groups now showing some talent. Will still be 2-3 years before we see the impact at 1st team level, but have to just keep building.
@Skywalker: Northwood played with great commitment , were full value for their 3 tries …. through the age groups they have definetly improved , however , the coaching is definetly lacking , as their structure and defence were not great …their age group A sides were bigger than KCs , with some decent backs , however , solid KC defence stopped them from getting any momentum ….. also , I found that only a hand full (60 or so) boys remained behind to watch the first team game , with 1000 plus kids at the school you would expect a lot more support for the first team …. however , the rugby lads played their hearts out and the u14s and u 15s made KC work hard for their wins .
@Skywalker: They seem to be playing with purpose and a plan. They are a physical side, with good skills. The game against DHS, Hilton picked up a few key injuries. Back to full strength now.
@Skywalker: Their 60 point plus loss to Paul Roos (I think it was) during Easter Festivals might have woken them up..
Hilton seem to have become a different team to the one that started the season going down to DHS at home. Now wins over Kearsney, Westville and MH… what happened?
There U16 age group also seems strong. Bodes well for them.
Any feedback on the NW – Kearsney game? Big win expected for Kearsney of course, but glad to see NW at least managed a few tries. Glad we won the 1st team hockey. Would love to see rugby meet the hockey standards one day.
@Far Meadows: Sounded like a typical midlands derby, close. Certainly closer than I predicted.
@Far Meadows: Flip cried like a baby after the game. Still think of that game during my quite time.
Life lesson-I have taught my son never under estimate the Black and White no matter how rubbish you think they are.
@star: I didn’t play for the 1st XV , but played in all the Hilton VS MHS games through the age groups.Maybe upset is the wrong word , but it would certainly have been an unexpected win if MHS had pulled it off .
The last real upset I can think of was in 1991 , ask @Bush about that – he has first hand experience of that !
@h2o: just shows how much this game is in the mind! Northwood coming up could be a good chance for the Ville. Glenwood will want to revenge last years defeat on Dixons so hopefully will come prepared. Just one of those seasons for Ville, nothing going right. It happened to Glenwood in the early 90’s, couldn’t buy a win.
Would be great for a upset….. just feel we need a win somewhere….. maybe arrange a game vs the 3rd team
trials on Wednesday should show what talent the boys have…..
@h2o: it’s a derby, you never know. The Ville particularly get motivated for a Wood scalp!
@Grasshopper: Bonthuis has clearly not seen Ville play this year… Glenwood by 40 The lack of any structure or gameplan is on the other side of the scale compared to your season. Passion, ability and skill is what keeps the boys in the game for 35 minutes but gameplan, strategy and lack of options costs us in the second 1/2…..
@h2o: there is also a game vs Glenwood on Bowdens to motivate the team. Bonthuis told me preseason that Ville would walk it….
@Ringo: unfortunately Ringo that would not be the sentiment of all Ville supporters. It is sad to say but the first side has become used to losing and it is a hole to deep. My son informed me that with 2 tries up they were just waiting for the backlash so mindset then was allready on negative. I do not see them getting past Pta Boys. The wrong gameplan… players not chosen on merit… coaches not seeing eye to eye…. interference from Governing body…. it has all contributed….. 2nd xv won their first game of the season though
@Bush: Agreed, they played really well, to think that two weeks ago the fullback was playing for the 3rd team. They certainly gave it their all, there were some very relieved people in the Hilton camp today.
@star: I am trully impressed by the depth of Westville was a great day of rugby today …. think it will be interesting when westville come to boys High in Pretoria…. It is unfortunate that you guys have caught us in the middle of our Indian summer we were saying with mates that we are really gonna enjoy our time in the sunshine and maybe we will turn it into a true summer
@star: Ja Star, those derby games you can never under estimate the Under Dog. He will bite you right on your ass.
@Far Meadows: House were machines today, well done. Game of the day 3rds.
@Far Meadows: I do not know if you have played in a House/Hilton derby but there is really no thing as an upset. I feel for the House kicker but there is always the return match.
@ Ringo- I apologize for the Westville support. I think the perceived arrogance might be better described as desperation. I am currently being hammered by my Kearsney compatriots and so can understand if comments can be sometimes a bit over the top . I think this relationship can only be positive for both schools going forward.
@Ringo: that is unfortunate, but it’s never over until the final whistle. This could be one of Westville’s worst seasons ever. Not sure how they can say cream will rise to the top when they haven’t won a game yet.
10-8 to Hilton was the final score.
House will take little comfort from the fact that they nearly pulled off a massive upset .
@Grasshopper: the noise and arrogance that spewed from the westville fans when the went 14 – nil up was unbelievable I was sitting behing some Westville coaches and parents and when they had Jeppe in the corner and they were about to score their 3rd try in the first ten minutes…. they were telling us how the cream always rises to the top how prophetic their words were the boys defended the line and 45 glorious and highly entertaining points followed. We love our new friends from Westville but mutual respect will be key pillar of our relationship going forward hope they have a safe trip home…. think the results down the line favoured them but in the AB teams we edged them.
Jeppe 45 – Westville 14, eish the pain continues for the Ville.
So far it is 6 matches to House and 8 to Hilton.
With House taking the U14a and U15a and Hilton taking the u16a.
Unfortunately for Westville a win vs a good Jeppe side away from home with low confidence is unlikely. I see Jeppe winning by 15. KES will be too strong for College too. Hilton to run away by 20 points