The visiting Glenwood 1st XV lived up to their top billing by producing an awesome exhibition of old school running rugby to record a comfortable 37-12 victory on Goldstones.
College may have been soundly beaten but on the evidence of their display, they look good enough to claim a high placed finish in KZN this season. Overall it was an excellent day for the home school. Of 28 matches they won a remarkable 24, achieving cleansweeps in both the under-14 and under-16 age groups.
The first 15min of the match belonged to Glenwood who dominated territorially. The visitors didn’t have the finishing touch though, producing and blowing several chances to open their account. Finally veteran centre JC Conradie came up with a neat step inside and power carry to beat a handful of defenders and score under the uprights. SA Schools scrummy Jaden Hendrickse converted to make it 7-0.
A mistake by Glenwood soon after the kickoff gifted College their first attacking position. College headboy, captain and no.8 Nthuthuko Mchunu has proven to be nightmare to deal with off the back of scrums this year, but was well contained at the start of this move. His offload wasn’t the best but centre Jacques van der Walt made an excellent pickup off his bootlaces and then an even better handoff of a would-be tackler to clear his path to the tryline. This brought the score to 7-5.
Glenwood’s Hendrikse produced a couple of outstanding kicks. First a big hang-time box kick to create a valid 50:50 contest which his teammates won and then a beautiful left footed dab over the top which College could not hold onto. Glenwood were not able to take immediate advantage but the field position gained eventually resulted in a penalty won due to a scrumming infringement. Hendrikse slotted the easy kick making it 10-5.
Glenwood soon had the field position back again mainly thanks to a bullocking run by their captain at flank Runako Brynard, who is coincidently also their headboy. A few plays later the score was upped to 13-5 as Hendrikse landed another easy kick after a hands in the ruck penalty.
The next score took a while to come but it was a beauty. A high quality long pass from the base by Hendrikse to wing Siyanda Cele allowed the latter to step and forge a gap down the middle. Quickball from where the diminutive wing was wrestled to the ground resulted in another equally good cut out pass to the right, this time by flyhalf Rynhardt Jonker who had initiated the whole sequence of attack with a clever hold and run around the outside on the extreme left. The flyhalf’s pass landed in the breadbasket of centre Conan Le Fleur who had relatively little to do to finish in the right corner. Another successful conversion made it 20-5.
The number of injuries picked up during this match was a bit of a concern. Captain Brynard who looked in good form was replaced by Freddie Slabbert, who himself had to be replaced later on. Slabbert produced a wonderful cameo though. Glenwood ended the half with threatening another breakout from back spearheaded by replacement flank.
Glenwood’s willingness to attack from deep paid handsome dividends shortly after the break. Jonker, a very good reader of play, presented a pop pass on the inside to work-seeking wing Jean Roux coming from deep, to manufacture the initial break. Then the skilled flyhalf did well to control a poor pass and get rid of the ball swiftly and precisely to make sure the speed of the attack was not lost. After a draw and pass, Le Fleur was the recipient out wide and the 2017 SA Schools player obliged with useful pace to skin the cover before cutting in to beat the last line on the inside shoulder. That made it 25-5.
Wing Cele scored Glenwood’s fourth try to make it 30-5. It was another long range effort. The joy of it and possibly the stand out feature of this match as a whole was the midfield interchange between George Luzolo and fellow backrower Lindo Luthuli, which characterized the performance. Glenwood played a very expansive game, so the big battle of the forwards never really materialised. Instead the mobility, metres gained and influence of Glenwood’s backrow forwards in relation to their opponents really stole the show.
The never-say-die attitude of scrumhalf Philane Simemane, encapsulates so much of what makes College a great school. The spirited halfback generated a rare highlight for the home support when he quick-tapped and set off on a commanding then dancing run which caused the Glenwood defender to hesitate and then make heavy reliance the left corner touch line to come to his aid as the home team scrumhalf was about to score. Not long afterwards Simemane earned himself his third try of the season when College won a tighthead from a scrum 5m out from the Glenwood line and he caught the blindside defence completely off guard. Flyhalf Keegan Collyer converted to reduce the lead to 30-12.
Glenwood substitute Dylan Pretorius scored an easy try to complete a good day when College tried to run the ball off the last play and lost it forward in a collision near their own tryline. With the kick over it ended affairs at 37-12 to the Green Machine.
@beet: Valid point about Cele but maybe they feel having Jonas at 15 makes them more tactically sound on defence. Just from watching their two games, I can see that Cele sometimes lines up as a fullback when running the ball back on attack. So this might not be a bad idea. The two can always interchange and Cele looks for work in the midfield kind of like Naholo does for the Highlanders. Fully agree Beet that the lad is lighting and he rather is stronger than he looks because he is not afraid of running angles into contact. I like that.
@Hooit: no
@MikeSt: Nice one Mike!Met my trots in die Garsie trui het ek nooit gedink ek gaan jaloers wees op n ander trui nie!
@Hooit: Alles net vir julle Hooit, my oorlede vader staan op in sy graf as hy dit sien.
Thx Beet looks awesome
@MikeSt: Whahaha. Great jersey Mike. Thanks Beet
@beet: agree Beet. Thats why ive said earlier is there really a place for an u21 competition. If you want to retain players and late developers why not a u23 cup
@MikeSt: @Hooit: Bulls Lions Leopards Free State and Sharks all within reasonable travelling distance. Can’t understand why those unions don’t organise a small U21 compo in lead up to proper 1 round CC.
@Hooit: Yep gaan daar wees verseker.
Die jaar is baie moeilik vir hulle want hulle oefen en hardloop hulle self in n koma in met die games wat eers in Mei begin.
o21 jaar nog erger want dan is dit n enkel rondte.
@MikeSt: Baie goed dankie. Net erg frusteerd met al die rugby en hul speel eers in Mei. Sien ons jou by Noord Suid
@Hooit: Hoe gaan dit daar met jou seun?
@Greenman: Do you know the size of the squad that will be announced?
I reckon Rynie Jonker should be played at 10. Great visionery and feeling for the game. Unfortunately Dylan Pretorius is going to warm the benches for now. Lunga and Coetzee very needed to round off the team. Hopefulky Os is over injury and can take his place.
@Bush: Do I observe a bit of “I like Glenwood” my friend? Maybe can help with half Grey and half Glenwood here. It would assist with perceived bias.
@McCulleys Workshop: He is good! Tukkies young guns for now. Bulls under 19 squad being announced on the 20 April I think! Hoping for the best.
@Hooit: My best guess is perhaps the SAS prop is being outperformed by the gr11 prop so far. I noticed that surprisingly the SAS prop was also omitted from the recent SARU EPD u18 squad.
Cele on the wing instead of at fullback remains a wonder to me. As you know Cele’s acceleration and step are top notch. Definitely a player who can hurt the opposition if given the kind of room a fullback often has. Glenwood have other useful selection options at wing including the current #15. There are countless good examples in SBR to prove that Cele’s best fit position on attack is fullback. Since SBR generally comes nowhere near to junior or senior rugby in terms of testing the all-round defensive capabilities of a fullback, whatever question-marks there are about his aerial or exit kicking skills, those things usually pale in comparison to the benefits of having a super offensive threat at the back. Maybe the coach is also looking at linking ability on attack?
Beet any specific reason why Glenwood’s the SA schools prop played from the bench?
Anh thoughts from the expert on Siyanda Cele playing better on fullback than on wing?
@McCulleys Workshop: Please McCulley you going to turn this thread into a coded thread. Don’t mention anything about the Bulls.
@Greenman: Lekker Greenman. I thought you would have at least changed your jersey. Depth is a concern, there are some massive games in their line up. They need to be at full strength for the entire season. 2nds were very good on Saturday. They ran the ball beautifully.
@Greenman: Greenman howzit, how is your son doing at the Bulls?
.GW first game so I am very happy! Can only progress from here. Injuries and depth does concern me. If they can keep it together a couple of surprises awaits. The rest of the teams performances is of great concern! 4 out of 28 I think! Call in sick when playing Grey!
@Bush: The reason I said Glenwood were fantastic was because it’s so early in the season and the attacking intent they had was awesome. Yes there were patches that were not great but as I said let’s not forget that this was an early game away from home on Goldstones. And they lost 4 forwards during the course of the game which led the MC pack to start dominating in the scrums in the 2nd half which gave them terrible ball but when they got clean ball they looked oh so dangerous. The way to beat the Afrikaans powerhouses is to give the ball some air and be near perfect in your execution with suffocating defence. So I say, play on Glenwood and throw those 50/50 passes. Play rugby! Just execute and catch those 50/50 balls. I’m actually excited to watch them play in Paarl.
Was I at the same game? GW were great but not fantastic. Thought the 3 Loosies were brilliant, 4 and 5 wonderful work rate. The 3/4’s received so much ball they didn’t know what to do with it. If you throw those 50/50 passes against GCB and Bois High they will punish you. Hope GW didn’t pick up any serious injuries. They have some big games coming up. The pack looked a little shaky when 4 and 5 went off.
@CapeMan: Yes they are brothers Curtis and Joe Jonas
An Impressive display by Glenwood. All the combinations worked really well. The back three linked up really well at pace, the loose forwards were outstanding, the props were fit, Jonker controlled the game beautifully (I think he should stay at 10. Looked better than Pretorius did last year IMO), and Conan le fleur really ran some great angles even though some of the passes were forward but I really was impressed by his rugby IQ to exploit space. Jonker and Le Fleur are really on the same wave length. They have the potential to be a top 5 side or even higher. I really enjoyed watching this Glenwood side. Question – Is the number 15 the younger brother of your 10 from a few years ago? (He should have got more ball because he also looked exciting when counter attacking). Impressive Glenwood! Impressive! Maritzburg unfortunately just came up against a superior side in Glenwood but I could see a lot of heart from their forward pack. @Beet Glenwood played the right brand for the conditions and it’s the right kind of brand to play against anyone. They carried when they needed to and they passed when they needed to. Basically they played the situation in front of them which is what you want your players to do. I believe their pack has the size, skills and strength to match any pack in the country. The way to beat your Grey College and Paarl Boys is to play the way they played against MC. Exploit space and front up defensively. Looking forward to watching this team because they can still improve. College were lucky to play them early. I fear it would have been way more if they played later on in the season IMHO. Having said all that, we are playing MC at Saints in the main game on Thursday and I always know that MC come to play. They never lie down. It should be a great encounter against two proud schools.
@beet: the ‘hut’ next to the College boys has been demolished. still have no idea why they would knock down 1 and keep the other. Goldstones will in my mind forever be the biggest home ground advantage in Natal. The College 1st XV on Goldstones are a different animal. but from a spectators point of view, Goldstones (and just about every other main field has a long was t go to catch Stott Field as the best place to watch rugby.
@beet: Glenwood looked very impressive,their 7 and 8 played well,best performance by a team this year,that i have watched.
@Dixon’s: Even though Glenwood left points on the field and have room for improvement, it was still a good display of attacking rugby – the standard was way superior to anything else I have seen in KZN this season so far. One has to factor in that against stronger opposition they won’t be able to avoid the contest up front and will encounter defensive systems that drastically reduce the space ahead and perhaps to the outside, so their backs will need to be sharper. That said I cannot see any of that stronger opposition coming from within the borders of KZN this year. Hopefully for the sake of a competitive local season, I’m wrong.
Would really love it if College would knock down those two hut like structures on their bank below the hockey field. That would provide far more decent viewing room.
On the positive side I also think the harder it is to find a seat, the better the atmosphere.
College showed why they are traditionally the top rugby school in KZN. 24 from 28 is a good day at the office. Glenwoods backline just didnt click 100%, when they do they could be something special. College tried hard but just didnt have the creativity to put meaningful points on the board (both of their tries came from Glewood mistakes)
It was a very hot day in PMB. lots of boys cramping. but as is always the case i enjoyed my day at Goldstones. maybe have a few more stands available for spectators and a few more places to get a cooldrink.
btw, the heartburn from those zarms only went away on Sunday night……
@McCulleys Workshop: He has just returned from injury. Almost didn’t make it to be fit for this interschools.
Howzit Beet, any reason Dylan Pretorius didn’t start at 10?