Preseason at its best – the Vories Night Series will take place on Friday 22 February and Friday 01 March 2019 at Voortrekker High School in Pietermaritzburg. This year the event welcomes Hilton College who will take on Glenwood in a preseason warmup match.
Last year the popular event moved to the university sports fields and although the match evenings drew sizeable crowds, it had a few drawbacks as well, in spite of the huge effort put in. These included traffic jams and food queues.
So its bound to be a nice welcome back to the old stomping ground at Vorieland! Good atmosphere, safe easily accessible parking, a wide variety of food and hopefully an appetite whetter for a good KZN school boy rugby season ahead.
Please note: NO ALCOHOL is permitted. Spectators carrying any vessels containing liquid beverages will also not be granted access into the night series facility. In the interests of safety and security, car boots may be searched at the car park entrance.
I watched a few games at the Vories N/S on 01 March. The Glenwood-Hilton game was great. Respect to both coaches who did not making winning the match their priority as witnessed by the teams they put out and strategies. I think that’s important context because it could quite easily have been best XV on best XV for the 40 or so minute match but it was far from that.
Glenwood fielded a young team. They looked like they’ve had a longer preseason than Hilton and started like dynamite. It was bit like watching the Crusaders team play the Hurricanes from the other week. High tempo, super passing at pace and a few football skills mixed in by Glenwood. The first try was a gem. In next to no time it was 12-0.
Hilton won a series of penalties and scored a BMH coached type try (keeping it tight, bash-bash and eventually powered over
). 12-5.
The Glenwood 9 Nico Steyn was my player of the evening. Very lively and I could probably write a paragraph on his kicking out of hand. Very different. Very good. I’ve seen many good KZN players over the years who have stamped their authority on matches, not many have been u17 gr.11’s tho so we will see how he goes. Glenwood will miss him this Saturday as he’s away playing SA u18 Sevens. A few other u17s also impressed on the evening. Decent ballplayers amongst the backs and forwards.
Hilton will no doubt be working a bit on their lineouts during this week. A couple of throws inside their own 22 cost them dearly on the scoreboard. But credit to Glenwood for their alertness to pounce and turn those opportunities into points.
By halftime the Chappies jerseys were ahead 27-5. (5 tries to 1).
In the second half Hilton played more of their first choice players that were available for the match. It made a big difference. They dominated the half. The surprise of the evening was the burly lock Chris d’Oliviera. Didn’t strike me as the sort of player that will clean out too many rucks but with ball in hand he proved to be a machine. A bit like Niaan Taljaard from last year except with a bit more explosiveness and combined with the weight he took a bit of stopping sort of 10m after he’s bulldozed over the gainline. Anyway CoD played a part in both Hilton 2nd half tries. He’s also a useful lineout lifting support. Hilton always seem to have good scrummies. Evidence suggests this year is no exception. Feels like an endless succession in that possie. Always nice to have a decisive, skilled player at the base.
Fulltime was 27-17.
It was a welcomed change for Hilton to go into the regular season with a match conditions warm up like this under the belt. I remember attending the Vories N/S a few years back and the Hilton participation was limited to their coaches videoing DHS, who have sort of become their traditional regular season opening opponents now.
Earlier in the evening, the older Glenwood team took on Weston. It was hard to read much into the match. Weston were brave but offered minimal resistance. Just about everyone in the Glenwood team looked great.58-0. Of interest, the versatile Joe Jonas played 9, in preparation for the same role against Westville.
The Glenwood coach Derek Heiberg can be pretty happy with form and fitness but left himself with the headache of having to blend the two teams for this Saturday. Seems like he might have to flick a coin to decide a few starting positions.
The main match was Vories against St Charles. The match was start-stop from start to finish. It just didn’t get going. Vories had a few players who were strong in the tackle and therefore offer something very valuable but they need to work on getting the same continuity which made last year’s team so entertaining to watch at the N/S 2018. SCC have a bye this weekend, so time is on their side. Their team on the night consisted of a few players who might end up in 3rds so it was a mixed bag. They have some big forwards that can stand them in good stead and a few back who definitely showed ability with nought to top speed carries in a matter of metres. But cohesion was not there. The halftime score was 0-0. St Charles scored 2 second half tries to win it 12-0.
@Chalkdust: Think it’s worth mentioning that the Glenwood side against Hilton was all Gr 11 boys.
Some big boys in the Hilton Team??
Glenwood 27 Hilton 17
Final score
@Tuckshop: That’s what I would have thought this series to be. I think the advertisement should be GW U18/U19 vs Hilton U18/U19. The way it’s written OS has gotten very excited
Very welcomed preparation for the challenging season ahead.
Coaches will still be testing so no first team caps to be gained.
Players will have to earn that honour when the full length matches start.
Vories Nights Series what a fantastic event. Hope that GW and Hilton play in their 1st Team Jerseys and not their stripped ones. Then only can we say a step in the right direction or a total side step.
All is well at Westville. Our squad is looking strong, fit and highly motivated. We’re attending the Glenwood Festival as well as the KES Festival with our opening fixture vs Glenwood in between. Being selective in our pre-season matches will be key to our performance in 2019! Reason being why we’re not attending the Vories Nite Festival.
@oldschool: Agreed. @sparkie: Yes they did. I seem to remember that DHS were also involved. You have to hope that from a planning perspective that everything is under control
@star:Star didn’t Westville use this series as a pre season warm up. Wonder why they not there this year..
Good to see Hilton playing Glenwood , a step in the right direction !
Is this T20?
Better get up there to support the nephew.( Although playing for a tier 2/3 school