Opinions on DHS Rugby Day 2017

Hilton 1½st XV 34 Clifton 5

With half of the Hilton 1^st XV away at a Sevens tournament in the UK, it potentially spiced up this contest. Clifton fielded an unusually a big pack of forwards for a smaller school, however Hilton still had 6 of the 8 starting forwards that did duty against DHS, so were able to negotiate the forward battles without too much concern. The match was played in hot weather and as a result there were water breaks even though the halves were only 25-minutes long. Hilton had some very good passages where their ball retention was of a high standard. They butchered a few tries with knock-ons along the way though and only led 8-0 at the halftime break. Hilton was pretty much in control of matters though. As big as the Clifton pack are, they need to get a little fitter and a bit more physical. The best Clifton play of the half for me a rare carry by their  2m ±120kg giant Thomas Westermeyer . He is a very power player with a bit of natural aggro and it took several Hilton players to stop after he’d marched them back about 10m. If Clifton can get him to full fitness, he would give their attacking play and perhaps even their rucks a different dimension.

During the second half Chipo Mupeso, the Hilton outside centre really came to life and his step off the right foot combined with pace and upperbody strength was too much for the defence to handle at times. Mupeso perhaps didn’t started 2017 as a top 13 in the KZN value chart but the form and confidence gained during this match could really stand him in good stead for the season ahead and lift him into serious Craven Week consideration. Recently his 2016 captain Angus Curtis made the Irish u19 squad and there’s a video of Curtis’s best moments from last year floating around the net somewhere which actually also does Chipo a lot credit for the lines he ran and the good hands he displayed.

Hilton was a lot more clinical but Clifton’s depth challenges were also shown up a bit in the second half. The black and white stripes added four more tries to the one in the first half. The halfbacks of both teams were decent. Both Jordan Twiss (9) and the versatile Gareth Schreuder (10) were amongst the tryscorers and played with maturity for guys who are not first choice players in those roles. It would be nice to see CC’s Stefan Muller (9) and Michael Goedeke (10) in a stronger team with more ball as they both looked like they have more to offer. Clifton scored a very good try during the second half when they handled the ball well – here it looked like Nic Donnelly (12) and Brent Bothwell (8) had done really good work as part of the build-up that led to Brad Evans (13) scoring.

Glenwood 56 Voortrekker 7

It was an impressive overall performance by Glenwood against a Vories team that have already offered good resistance against formidable Tier-1 opposition albeit on their own home ground under floodlighting that they are familiar with. Glenwood played with good tempo and built a 21-point lead in about 15-minutes then they sort of went off the boil for a while and Vories to their credit who never stopped trying kept the score at 7-7 for about the next 25-minutes of play across a half-time break. However Glenwood finished the game very strongly and even when the Vories boys looked like they had organised their defence well, there were bits of creativity footwork, good passing and speed injection by different GM players to open up the way to the tryline which they visited 4 times to increase their lead by 28 points in the last 10-minutes or so. The sole Vories try was achieved via an unstoppable driving maul set up in the 22 after a penalty + more had been awarded. During the match Voortrekker hooker Samat Hussain once again displayed his never-say-die attitude which makes him a pleasing player to watch.

There were a few very interesting things about the Glenwood team personnel. The part that surprised me the most was the positional switches. Captain Dylan Kruger, a boy whose earned provincial distinction at various levels most notably as a back and who has probably always enjoyed a size advantage over most opponents while growing up, was starting to look like a basic backline player last year. Well he has been rehashed as a flank and he really looked the part during this game. Some of his short burst of pace carries reminded me of a Francois Pienaar when he started out for Transvaal. Former flyhalf Morne van Rensburg who came across as a bit of a confidence player last year had a good outing on the right wing. More often than not Glenwood have struggled with reliable place-kicking in their recent past and early indications are that without the decision-making pressure of the 10 jersey on his back, van Rensburg could really become an ace points machine this year. JJ vd Mescht who was probably operating at 50% fitness after an injury layoff and therefore nowhere close to his best, played no.8 instead of lock. Brendon Schwulst shifted frontrow positions and is now a mobile tighthead prop.

There were also some interesting new faces in the team. The one that brought me the most joy was seeing Jaco Coetzee’s brother Werner earning a first team cap. He’s a big lad and hopefully he can continue working hard and earn a few more caps this year. At fullback there was a busy youngster who bared a resemblance to a well-known former international referee. He had a bit of an untidy start to the match but at the end he made some effective attacking contributions including useful passes and one smart dab through, which got his teammates goal-side of a well arranged defensive line when Vories looked like they had closed down all the attacking space. The most memorable play by the inside centre who shares a name with a prominent Scottish-Springbok hooker was when he read a situation that resulted in him dinking one over the top and showing some toe to get the bouncing ball first about 50m down the track and score from there – the execution made me think of another DPHS old boy Tristan Tedder who made a habit of doing that sort of thing. Then two others with surnames of Brynhardt and Jonas must be are good odds to be younger brothers of former 1^st XV players.

One player who I thought could really offer Glenwood an edge this season was the left wing Siyanda Cele. He’s not the biggest player but he has wheels. Up front the lock Edward Laubscher put in a decent shift in open play and might be the go-to lineout player this year.

DHS 36 Port Natal 3

These days Port Natal are a very small school numerically but they take every aspect of their rugby as seriously as they did back in the days when they were team capable of standing their ground against anything Durban, PMB or the Midlands had to offer. They have some passionate staff and I’m sure we’ll see a few more Tier-1 upsets being caused by Porties in the years to come. DHS has had their share of hardships at the hands of White Knights in recent years, so good win like this one is one to be relished.

And with such a comprehensive victory it’s hard to be too critical of DHS’s form but for me there was still a carry-over of the frustration with their execution that was experienced last Saturday at Kings Park. There is a lot of positive high energy body language on show for ‘School’ but the end product quality is sometimes not as good as it should be in terms of team work and cutting out errors. Hopefully during Easter DHS will gel and wow the St Stithians Fest audience because they have a lot of potential. The SA u18 “A” scrumhalf and SA Sevens player Sanele Nohamba didn’t start. I would like to see him have a bash at 10. Apart from having that marvellous educated boot with an easy 50-60m punting range, he might just be the General they need to see the backline firing on all cylinders. During the match the two players without numbers on their jerseys Kamvelihle Fatyela (6) and Asanda Kunene (12) played with a lot of determination. Three other rated DHS players Celimpilo Gumede (4), “Pepsi” Buthelezi (7) and Cham Zondeki (15) all got onto the scoresheet – all three are capable of producing individual brilliance at times. DHS injuries are a bit of a worry as well. Barnes, Ndudzo and Jiba were not available and Coleman appeared to like he was hurt as well during the match.

I missed the first match of the day, Kloof played George Campbell.