One week after scoring 12 tries against Northwood, DHS could not cross the white chalk once as Hilton’s seemingly impenetrable defence stood firm, helping the “visitors” to record a bit of an upset 10-6 win at Kings Park in Durban.
The strong wind throughout the day had its influence on school matches in Durban, heavily influencing the quality of ball-handling and making lineout throwing a challenge. These were two areas where DHS, who in spite of the result somehow seemed to have the better of territory and possession as an overall percentage during the 70-minutes, suffered the most. DHS tried hard to play their unstructured, shift the ball through the hands high tempo game in the hopes of unsettling the Hilton defence. However the high quality distribution needed to ignite the offences went missing in action. Apart from unforced errors, too often there were flatfooted receivers waiting to collect and then run instead running onto passes. It reduced the effectiveness of numerous attacks, making gain-line breaking momentum hard to come by. The DHS team cohesion was disrupted and also not showing was the individual X-factor flair to make something out of nothing that several talented key players possess. ‘School’ negotiated their difficulty in the scrums but their lineout setpiece proved to be a nightmare and to their detriment there were many lineouts in this start-stop type match. Their own-throw lineout game may have been tweaked to compensate for the wind but it just lacked the accuracy and innovation needed to overcome the sharpness and athleticism of Hilton jumpers Tristan Warren and Andrew James and as a result there were precious few good platforms for DHS to work off.
After being scoreless at halftime, DHS’s 6-points came in the 42nd and 50th minutes via two fairly straightish penalties landed by scrumhalf Sanele Nohamba. ‘School’ had opportunities to get 5-pointers towards the end as they trailed 10-6 and the urgency level crept up. Their most memorable attacking play was a rare one off a set-piece, involving the backs lining deep near their own 22m and passing coming off to offer the replacement wing in the no22 jersey a good gallop down the left touchline after beating a tackle and he got his pass away as well to get DHS into the redzone. From that field position and one penalty awarded late, Luthando Buthelezi could not hold on to the ball close to the right corner. A bit later flyhalf Lwazi Moletshe cross-kicked and again the right wing just could not gather it in after the bounce to make things interesting. Perhaps the best DHS chance was at the death when one of their lineouts (attacking) did work helping set up a driving maul and earning a penalty, one of numerous penalties that resulted in DHS using the quick tap option. DHS got right to the Hilton tryline and the situation appeared to be a carbon copy of the end of match play in the Vories Night Series match against Westville a few weeks ago. Virtually the same position, same ruck setup, same need to score the try, same time on the clock. Back then it was a poor pass to the left that got intercepted by Westville, this time it was a knock-on on the line from a pass to the left as they went for glory.
As mentioned Hilton proved to be a resolute wall on defence. It was close to a textbook performance in this area of the game. There was good organisation and plenty of commitment against a team that was expected to ask many questions of them defensively. It went so well that there were very few times when their secondary line were called into play. Helping them along was the absence of a DHS “plan B”.
The Hilton attacking game did not flourish in the conditions. Hooker Tim Densham and lock George Putter had a few good carries to set up front-foot phase ball mainly in the first half, while young fullback Gareth Schreuder did well when he was called on in open play. Wing Daniel da Costa and centre Chipo Mupeso probably had the most memorable carries, with the latter’s drifting run (before the turnover) into the DHS 22m late in the second half being the closest any of the Midlands team’s backs came to influencing the scoring with ball in hand.
Hilton’s two tries were very similar in nature. Very early in the match DHS regained possession from their own 22m drop out. However they got pinged for holding and Hilton duly kicked to the corner, set up a lineout, then got another penalty and repeated the kick even closer to the corner. From here No.8 Tristan Warren got up high to secure the ball and a well set rolling maul saw hooker Densham crash over. This made it 5-0, which was also the halftime score.
15-minutes into the second half a similar sequence of events followed. Hilton set up an attacking lineout about 10m out from the tryline, at which DHS lock Chris Coleman infringed and earned a yellow card. Hilton then kicked the ensuing penalty out on the 5m line and used a driving maul after lock Andrew James took the ball in the air and this time replacement hooker no.16 Dylan Thomas was the rudder who steered Hilton over the line, making it 10-3.
It was perhaps not the most attractive rugby match to watch, but it was filled with passion and the closeness of the score kept spectators eyes fixed on the battle being played out. There was a task to complete and Hilton should be very happy with the final outcome of 10-6 in their favour.
The DHS schoolboy supporters played their part. They were a loud presence in a big relatively empty stadium. DHS forfeited the true home ground advantage which would have come at a jam-packed Van Heerden’s on the Berea and possibly along with that a win. To play the Sharks curtain-raiser at Kings Park is no doubt a wonderful experience. Whether or not the DHS players’ look back one day with the same pleasant long term memories of the occasion as their Hilton counterparts, only time will tell.
Was a proper battle ! HIlton are going to be a difficult side to beat , BMH is doing a great job ! It will be interesting to see if they can hold there defense structures against Affies in three weeks time though ?