KZN school rugby weekend – 17 March 2018

Adverse weather may play a roll on match day Saturday in KZN. Also there’s a referees camp on the go so a lot of the top guys are away.

Maritzburg College vs St Charles

There’s a unique event on at Maritzburg College on Saturday. It’s Pietermaritzburg Day! The Red, Black, White gets to play against several schools from the KZN capital in 28 rugby matches spread across the 4 age-groups. That’s 28 teams . Word is that they had enough numbers to get to an amazing 30 teams but couldn’t find rivals for the extra 2 teams.

After a useful preseason the real deal for College starts against St Charles. Getting their backline firing should rank amongst the priorities. The match also marks the head coaching debut of MCOB Tim Orchard.

It has been 41 years since these two city rivals last met in a full set of fixtures back in 1977.  St Charles College, after seeing near closure in 1978, has steadily been progressing. They have had their share of  rugby highs and lows over the years but they’ve never given up on trying to improve their rugby and bridge the gap particularly between themselves and fellow privates Hilton and Michaelhouse who they play annually. Over the last few years there have been some very positive vibes coming out of Saints. If their preseason form against a Glenwood XV at the Vories Night Series a few weeks back is anything to go by, their supporters could be in for a memorable season. Saints (minus a few summer sportsmen) may have lost that first run-out of the year 19-0 but it’s what they did during the match which was so impressive.  Player conditioning, attack variation and in particular ball-retention in the face of a committed, organised and quick Green Machine defence far exceeded expectations. Even though they will run onto Goldstones as the underdogs, they have enough going to provide their hosts with a worthy early season test.

Kearsney vs Northwood

A win against Michaelhouse is nothing to scoff at but Kearsney will definitely feel that they didn’t do enough to keep the scoreboard ticking over. At training fixing the lineout work must have been the priority by quite a considerable distance. The unforced error rate in open play is something they would have addressed and at the same time they will perhaps be looking to speed up attacks with quicker recycling and better timing of interactions. Significantly the One-Stripes have reshuffled their backline to accommodate the return of Muirhead from injury. He’ll slot in at flyhalf, meaning Kearsney’s two best players from the House win, Odendaal (flyhalf to fullback) and Koenig (fullback to outside centre) will have opportunity to show their versatility. Kearsney had an extremely close call against the Knights on Stott back in 2014, so it’s best not to be complacent.

Northwood are expected to field no fewer than eleven under-17 starters in a “rebuilding” season. It will be a big ask for such a young team to go out and win their first game away from home even if they sense that this is not one of Kearsney’s stronger 1st XV’s that they will be up against. They nice thing about working with grade-11 players is that they tend to stay in line and have fewer performance related distractions and generally there’s a visible improvement in their play as the season progresses. Even though the odds are against them causing an upset, there seems to be a quiet and refreshing confidence in the Northwood camp ahead of this match.

Westville vs Michaelhouse

It was good to see an action statement by the acting rector of Michaelhouse after last weekend’s Kearsney defeat:

 

 

 

Michaelhouse primarily but not entirely through poor admin (not sending a representative to the KZN fixtures meeting in 2017) had placed their teams in difficult position and mention was even made of the safety aspect surrounding sending boys into battle if they were not adequate prepared.

This weekend things swing around a bit for House. Having a match under the belt makes a world of difference in the early season. A focal point had to have been the non-functioning backline on attack, something that is totally out of character for House, who are better known for attractive play in this department. With midfielders Dane Fisher and Will Norton still out of 1st XV contention, that task of getting more out of their backs is made that much harder. Flyhalf Liam England has also been ruled out due to injury.

Amongst the talking points is that House only has two complete u14 teams with their u14C being a 10’s team due to lack of numbers. Kearsney are experiencing similar challenges and can only provide Northwood with three u14 teams. It’s certainly regarded as a private school u14 thing as both privates have more u15 teams, indicating a greater willingness amongst older juniors to play. Westville can go all the way down to an u14G team while Maritzburg College has five in action on Saturday and probably a sixth one without a fixture.

For Westville it’s the regular season debut of Jeremy McLaren as head coach. He’s known to bring out the best in teams. Under him Westville’s style of play is bound to be a crowd pleaser for the home faithful.

The preseason matches has gone relatively well on the field but the off the field has not been without it’s share of drama. Westville faced the same sort of moral dilemma that honestly could and already has happened to several schools as prominent as they are. It stemmed from catching four 1st XV squad players smoking an illegal substance at a preseason event. The moral dilemma is in what punishment to give top sportsmen. On the one hand the school has to discipline the culprits and for the sake of the institution’s values it has to send out a strong standard setting message of condemnation in this regard. However the harsher the terms of punishment, the larger the potential impact on the school’s sport results, so it’s a bit of a vicious circle of trying to do the right thing without it becoming the wrong thing to do. It’s easy to be on the outside and judge but not so for decision-makers who truly feel the pressure from all sides. In the end these WBHS rugby players were put through the school’s tribunal disciplinary process and unconfirmed is that they received a two week sports ban each. Interestingly cannabis is still a prohibited substance as far as WADA is concerned but due to it not being a performance enhancer, it’s treated very leniently in the professional sports world and chances are that as it becomes legalised in more countries around the world, it may fall off WADA’s list altogether.

Expect Westville to come away with a win on their Bowdens’ field.

Hilton vs DHS

Hilton’s cricket success has for now gotten in the way of what promises to be a good rugby campaign. Several T20 cricketers are therefore not available for the DHS rugby game, which Hilton at one stage wanted to cancel/postpone before sanity prevailed.

This will be the third year running that Hilton opens its regular season account against DHS, with the schools having a win apiece coming into this match. The manner in which both schools prepare for the season makes Hilton vulnerable but this year they do have depth to count on and remain favourites to win on home soil.

By contrast DHS remains thin in the depth chart. As a result rated SA Schools 15s and 7s player Celimpilo Gumede will start in the second row where he did duty last year, even though he is likely to feature for province and country in the backrow this season. DHS have a few go-to players in their team and unlike their teams from the early part of this decade, they should be reasonably competitive once again this year.

This match has plenty of potential to be an exciting one.