Kearsney will head into their first major contact session of 2013 without a number of their stalwarts. Just like Tier 1 opponents College and Westville, the overlap of the rugby pre-season with the summer sports calendar has resulted in a number of first choice players not being made available for these warm-up games. This along with injuries sees Kearsney travel to the Voortrekker Rugby Night Series in Pietermaritzburg for a match against locals College without the likes of their SA Schools duo of Dan and JL du Preez, highly rated Ayron Schramm, playmaker Tyler Smith, the ever-reliable decision-maker Tristan Tedder and strongly-built Guy Francis.
Of great interest to Kearsney should be how the frontrow comes along, especially with the new school scrumming laws in place. Here there are a number of different combinations available to the coaches so between Visser, Bell, Moloi, Wernich, Meaker and Pelliccia there should still quite a bit to play for over the coming few weeks. Another area to focus on should be the back three. Kearsney needs to replace their SA Schools 2012 x-factor centre Sandile Kubeka with something special away from the breakdowns. Without any really powerful ball-runners in the Kubeka mold, the Highways team possibly has to look for players with speed and agility to compliment their pack when it comes to launching varied attacks.
Fixtures for 22 March 2013
| 17:30 | Westville 2 | Linpark | ||
| 18:30 | Voortrekker | Greytown | ||
| 19:30 | Maritzburg Coll | Kearsney |
Kearsney squad for Voortrekker Rugby Night Series
| # | Name | Surname |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tijde | Visser |
| 2 | Rory | Bell |
| 3 | Mthokozisi | Moloi |
| 4 | Mitch | Du Toit |
| 5 | Bevan | Jackson |
| 6 | Zander | Rossouw |
| 7 | Jarred | Hayes-Hill |
| 8 | Stephen | Tedder |
| 9 | Matt | Reece-Edwards |
| 10 | Kyle | Richie |
| 11 | Bradley | Walker |
| 12 | Ben | Nott |
| 13 | Joshua | Attenborough |
| 14 | Langa | Hlongwane |
| 15 | Chris | Lines |
| 16 | Mitchell | Wernich |
| 17 | Jordan | Meaker |
| 18 | Biaggo | Pelliccia |
| 19 | Rhys | Driver |
| 20 | Friederich | Luyt |
| 21 | Blair | Cremer |
| 22 | Thuthukani | Ndlovu |
| 23 | James | Hall |
| 24 | Ryan | Vd Waal |
| 25 | Alex | Albertse |
@ Pedantic- Westville 2nds beat Linpark 45-0. I seem to remember that Schramm also played KZN 7s so must be able to get around the ground well and have the necessary ball skills.T
@star: I think Schramm will play at 6 – he is very mobile. Remember he only moved to the forwards last year after playing most of his high school rugby at centre.
With that in mind it will be interesting to see what happens with Roussouw and Francis as I doubt they will slot into the second row.
Any scores from the other games on Friday night?
the score was 19/7 Kearsney. Maritzburg started well in the first 19 minutes but after that it was all kearsney. Stole lots of lineouts and finished well
Kearsney beat College (17 – 10 – or something along those lines). Apparently College started well but Kearsney regrouped and came back strong and gave a good account for themselves in the second half of the match which MC could not counter.
Does anyone know the scores from last Friday night and what the games were like?
@star:
I wouldve thought Guy Francis was the obvious choice. Not so?
I wonder where Schramm will play. With the twins playing flank and eigthman , they might need a more mobile openside flanker. Schramm might be moved to lock. I am sure Dixon was being considered for that position but with the new regulations that is no lomger an option.
Looks a good squad and even better with those who are not available. Could be the best side in KZN for 2013, just my opinion though…
good luck kearsney start of lets hope something good this year