Nories recorded a 10-8 win against Pretoria Boys’ High on Thursday 16 March. It’s all starting to come together nicely for the Krugersdorp co-ed school who hardly have a rugby culture and like it or not are branded as the West Rand rich academic girls’ school, one that very much lives in the rugby shadow of rugby high-flying neighbours Monument.
In times when general school rugby participation numbers around the country appear to be on the decline in traditional rugby regions, Nories have managed to increase their quantity from 9/10 teams to the 14 they put out against Boys’ High and they are planned to stay at 13 or above for the season. It’s part of a strategy which they hope will help get them a few more traditional fixtures against the bigger and often better rugby schools like Boys’ High.
Last season Noordheuwel made it all the way to the PUKS-Prestige final. Their previous best had been 9th place finish. They also made it into the Beeld (Virseker) macro schools playoffs for the first time. They have set equally challenging 2017 goals for themselves in both competitions.
Appointments like that of Rocky Truter as Director of Rugby in 2016 has helped their development curve steepen. The introduction of West Rand coaching legend Hans Coetzee for the 2017 season and even assistance from Paarl Boys’ High’s top rated coach Sean Erasmus in preseason provide further indications of a school committed to upping their rugby.
Noordheuwel results against Pretoria Boys’ High:
1 – 1st XV: 10 – 8
2 – 2nd XV: 7 – 78
3 – 3rd XV: 5 – 31
4 – 4th XV: 14 – 19
5 – 5th XV: 19 – 26
6 – u16A: 7 – 19
7 – u16B: 15 – 17
8 – u16C: 15 – 12
9 – u15A: 35 – 3
10 – u15B: 7 – 12
11 – u15C: 7 – 30
12 – u14A : 45 – 7
13 – u14B: 17 – 3
14 – u14C: 5 – 17
Sounds great. Like a breath of fresh air from out west. What do the bloggers say, will they beat Marais Viljoen? I think if they are indeed on an upwards curve they will need time to get their structures and programs working for them. At this stage I think they may still find the season challenging. Saturday against MV will be another acid test for them. All the best to the team.
@bart nel: Thank you Bart. I will follow up on the points you mentioned and revert.
Interessante berig en kommentaar. Stas so effe verkeerd. Dink hulle het nog altyd tussen 10 en 12 spanne gehad. Beste posisie wat eerste span geeindig het in PUK reeks was 3de voor verlede jaar. Het in 2015 weer in Beeld trofee begin speel. Voor dit het hulle mos net PUK prestige en vriendskaplike wedstryde gespeel, toe al teen Menlo, Saints, St. Johns,Waterkloof ens ens gespeel. Bly om te hoor dat hulle meer moeite met hulle rugby doen met iemand soos Hans daar.
@Skopgraaf243: The Norries hockey is extremely strong. Assume Hans will start changing the rugby trend, and get Monnas “back”. AH’e
@Norieman: Didn’t realised that it was a weakened team v Saints, but that makes sense, as I remember last year’s age group being a very good one for Norries when they were u16/15/14. Good luck!
It was indeed a very good excercise, and hopefully it will become a annual fixture against PBHS. Noordheuwel has 700 boys but only 200 rugby playing boys, which is why they struggle to compete against top schools. But with systems put in place now and a decent rugby program in place, hopefully they will start being more competitive. The first XV has 10 U/17 in the team so next year will be a good year if all goes well. Also last year was a good year, yes they got beaten by Saints but it was the 2nd stringers as the first team was on tour. But they made it to the PUK final and Beeld play offs. Good start for the rugby. Hopefully is the U/14 from this year gets to grade 12 , Nories will be playing big teams like PBHS and Menlo and have a interschool match against Monnas.
@Skopgraaf243:You are 100% correct. We have run out of excuses for some of the Boys High rugby results.
I spend hours trying to fathom out new excuses.
@Vleis: If you look at their u16 results from 2015, they were pretty decent. I watched them at the Jeppe u16 festival in 2015 and you could see they were a decent unit.
@Skopgraaf243: You a Nories old boy? As a Lions fan, it’s pleasing to see the improvement and increase in rugby interest at Nories, but I’m nevertheless surprised that they aren’t much better. After all, they have some 700 Afrikaans boys, have great facilities and are a “rich” school. Surely, they should be aiming to be at the level of Menlo? They lost by 26 to 10 v a very average Saints 1st team last year.
Tang…your fielding for the some of the results is as bad as the excuse for recruitment. Oh and hockey isnt bad either
5 from 14 isnt the best result from Nories either but its good start fielding 4 extra teams than usual.
Excited to see what will happen down the season and defnitely years to come with the current input.
Depth seems to be drawback like with many other schools this step-up or building phase. You get alot of boys keen to play but quality opposition sustainable pressure week in and out will eat this depth for breakfast.
Good luck off to good start in the right direction.
@beet: They also have a fantastic boys hockey programme.
@beet: I didn’t watch yesterday, but apparently it was an excellent exercise and one that should be repeated annually.
I am surprised by the u15 A result. Boys High should have been much better than the score suggests.
I can understand the u14 results. It takes PBHS at least 6/7 games before the sides start to gel. It also shows how much work has to be done on the youngsters. Many are playing rugby for the first time, and as we all know, there are no rugby bursaries. At u14 level, the delta between a good rugby player and a novice is pronounced.
In the first team fixture, PBHS were leading for much of the match but sustained pressure eventually ended in points for Noordheuwel. PBHS need to learn to close out fixtures, especially at home.