Westville put the disappointment of last Saturday’s narrow defeat to DHS behind them as they produced a double thumbs up performance to overcome a good Jeppe team 27-17 in a home match played on Bowden’s field on a hot afternoon in the leafy suburb.
Things worked out very well for the hosts. They played an enjoyable brand of rugby and scored four very good tries to go along with two well taken long range penalties.
Although the visitors scored three tries of their own, liked Westville experienced last weekend, the Jeppe camp might feel a little let down by their some of their touches as they created enough initial chances to have a bigger say on the scoreboard.
Both teams deserved to be commended for the sportsmanlike manner in which they played the match.
For Westville, their sideline schoolboy support once again did not let the 1st XV down and given their creativity war cry choices, their volume and probably most importantly their staying power energy, they are probably the best in KZN at the moment.
The up and coming referee Damian Varney had a good day in the middle as well.
Match Summary:
| TIME | SCORE | DETAILS |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | 0-0 | The opening passages are a bit like the old amateur rugby days: longish phases of play due to the attacks conceding turnovers, the ref allowing for advantage to accrue and the ball not going out of play. |
| 8 | 0-5 | Jeppe eventually breaks the deadlock with a bit of assertiveness combined with an alertness for where the space is behind the Westville defence. It is the end result of an untidy attempt by Westville to exit their own territory after being pinned back. A kick ahead is recovered by Jeppe, who then generate the necessary front-foot ball via captain and inside centre Boitumelo Tsatsane. Soon after, battering ram lock Justin Kalamer connects up with impressive Setshaba Mokoena. The switched on fullback threads a perfectly weighted ball into the 22 off his foot for his unmarked outside players on the right to chase after. Hooker Setjhaba Motaung collects it and distributes to right wing Hugo Monteiro who scores the try but cannot add any extras from a difficult angle. |
| 14 | 7-5 | New to the centre position but arguably one of the fastest improving players in schoolboy rugby at the moment, Westville’s former loose-forward Mambo Mkhize is the catalyst for his team’s opening try. Mkhize’s linebreak from inside his own half gets the home support out of the seats but the real pleasure is to follow as displays the presence of mind to look for support instead of trying to go it alone. By holding the ball in two hands, he has both defenders immediately in front of him in two minds about where the next threat will come from and this allows the strong midfielder to get by both players before he puts his charging scummy Abande Mthembu away with a breadbasket pass. Brought down inside the Jeppe 22, Mthembu comes up with a well-timed pop off the deck of his own to big flank Ockie Barnard who is travelling at full tilt and virtually impossible to stop from that range. He steams over for a great try. Barnard passed the character test with flying colours as he battled through a spider bite illness during the week leading up to the match and played through the pain of a dislocated finger and also a rib injury picked up in the game. Left wing Grove Akker converts. |
| 17 | 14-5 | The try lifts Westville and their positive play combined with good interchanges is rewarded when they force a 5m attacking lineout their way. An innovative throw in provides the platform for a driving maul, which Jeppe sacks illegally. Tap and go sees action involving the forwards very near the Jeppe try-line being successfully repelled by the visitors. Eventually slow-ball is recycled by the Westville pack to introduce to their backs. In midfield Mkhize (12) is confronted by the linespeed of a shooting out Jeppe defender. The Westville centre is however strong enough on his feet to negotiate a way past and once clear there is no one close enough to stop him from crossing for the try. Akker converts. |
| 19 | 17-5 | Straight after the next kickoff the player of the match, enthusiastic Westville fullback Larry Nkonki is able to weave his magic by stepping past a few Jeppe players, something he does on numerous occasions during the 70-minutes as he not only makes many metres for his team but also rescues them from tricky positions on the wrong end of the park a few times. After he’s brought to ground just inside enemy territory, Jeppe are pinged at the ruck. Wing Grove Akker’s 45m kick sails over the bar. |
| 22 | 17-5 | Westville are clicking. Their confidence in execution sets up a chance to go further ahead but they drop the ball on the try-line. |
| 35 | 17-5 | After being under the cosh, Jeppe close out the half with better play. The deadball line wins the race to end one of their better chances in the half but the downside of the last 10 minutes is that in addition to a few unforced handling errors they also miss touch from two separate penalties which could have seen them attacking from setpieces inside the Westville 22. |
| Halftime | 17-5 | A really good half of rugby for Westville. |
| 37 | 17-12 | Whatever is said to the Jeppe boys at halftime, it works! Right from the kickoff the same quality of play that saw them beat Selborne a few weeks earlier comes to the fore. Their first try of this second half begins when Westville loses control of the ball in a ruck shortly after receiving the restart. Jeppe recovers the ball thanks to outside centre Mohau Mohlahleli and get to the try-line fairly rapidly from there. They then take play through a few phases thanks to hard work by the pack and some physical exchanges before letting the ball go wide to the left where there is plenty of room as a result of the player congestion near the right corner. A good pass and an even better balanced push off his right leg by recipient Mokoena, sees the classy fullback make the difficult look like a piece of cake. He beats his marker on the outside and crosses the line. Monteiro converts. |
| 46 | 17-17 | Jeppe’s hands let them down a few more times but the stanza belongs to them so far. Their slow poison approach which is built around solid team work rather than anything flash delivers once again. Even though they are doing enough in the tighter exchanges to potentially expose Westville’s disproportionately numbered defensive lines on one side of each breakdown, Jeppe are not always in tune to take advantage of the overlaps from phase ball but their retention skills and persistence eventually even wears down the wall on the well-guarded sides. Finally flank Kamohelo Tlome who took on a lot of ball-carrying responsibility, delivers the well-earned 5-pointer with a try in the right corner to square up the very interesting match. |
| 49 | 20-17 | A delayed pass from Westville’s Mthembu (9) to Nkonki (15) allows the dangerous attacker to have more influence before he’s stopped via a high tackle. Akker produces an even better kick than his first half effort, this time from 50m away to break the deadlock. |
| 60 | 27-17 | What starts out as an excellent attack by Jeppe is stopped just short in the left corner by some good defending which leads to a Jeppe handling mistake. From the next play things look like they are about to get worse for Westville as they launch a suicidal looking crosskick from behind their own tryline. Because it’s too high and lacks distance, it’s more like an up-and-under into the centre of the own 22m area and if a Jeppe player catches it, it could be try-time. Fortunately for Westville, they manage to win back the aerial ball and once again Nkonki (15) saves the day for the hosts with his glamorous run. Shortly thereafter Mthembu (9) box kicks with no one home at the back and right wing Simelela Nkomo gives chase to help force a 5m scrum. From the scrum, Westville’s more than useful flyhalf Braden Van Wyk play actions and holds the ball long enough for Nkomo to run onto the eventual pass from a disguised deep line. He pierces the defence and scores under the posts. Akker converts. |
| 70 | In the last 10 minutes Jeppe create enough opportunities via the pressure they place on Westville but their demons return as they cannot take advantage of good field positions due to failing lineout work and dropping the ball on the line very late on in the match. During this segment of the game Westville also misses a golden opportunity to surge even further ahead as Nkonki (15) chooses a wrong option when a successful draw and pass to Akker (11) on his outside would almost certainly have resulted in a long range run in for a try by the KZN Sevens star. | |
| Fulltime | 27-17 | A match that provided outstanding entertainment ends. |
Teams
| # | WESTVILLE | # | JEPPE | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Okuhle Siyeni | u18 | 1 | Itumeleng Mtembu | u17 |
| 2 | Teague Loelly | u18 | 2 | Setjhaba Motaung | u18 |
| 3 | Pumi Xego | u17 | 3 | Sibu Shongwe | u18 |
| 4 | Cameron Best | u19 | 4 | Justin Kalamer | u17 |
| 5 | Kgopotso Matlena | u18 | 5 | Calvin Kuperus | u18 |
| 6 | Josh Aigner (#7) | u18 | 6 | Jarred Hawthorne | u18 |
| 7 | Ockie Barnard (#8) | u18 | 7 | Kamohelo Tlome | u17 |
| 8 | Gareth Beavan (#6) | u18 | 8 | Lifa Jambane | u18 |
| 9 | Abande Mthembu | u17 | 9 | Tsaona Tiro | u17 |
| 10 | Braden Van Wyk | u18 | 10 | Gerath Louw | u18 |
| 11 | Grove Akker | u18 | 11 | Katleho Maloka | u18 |
| 12 | Mambo Mkhize | u17 | 12 | Boitumelo Tsatsane | u19 |
| 13 | Mlu Khalishwayo | u17 | 13 | Mohau Mohlahleli | u19 |
| 14 | Simelela Nkomo | u17 | 14 | Hugo Monteiro | u18 |
| 15 | Larry Nkonki | u17 | 15 | Setshaba Mokoena | u17 |
| 16 | Mlondi Phakathi | u17 | 16 | Angelo Dube | u17 |
| 17 | Barnard Nortje | u17 | 17 | Kian Symonds | u18 |
| 18 | Ntobeko Gcabashe | u18 | 18 | Liam Stott | u18 |
| 19 | Philani Luthuli | u19 | 19 | Ross Du Preez | u18 |
| 20 | Testimony Dodo | u17 | 20 | Rogan Kitching | u17 |
| 21 | Kyle Naude | u18 | 21 | Zano Tshabalala | u18 |
| 22 | Liam Botha | u18 | 22 | Sifiso Dlamini | u17 |
| 23 | Eze Onyebilanma | u18 | 23 |
Refreshing to see Westville beating Jeppe, a school steeped in Rugby history. Westville were never a dominant side in Natal. Things may change. Great result. I am a Glenwood old boy. However, to see the lesser Natal Schools beginning to compete on a higher level is encouraging. All the best to the Westville boys for the season ahead.
@Grizzly: All good… our rugby fraternity would love to be exposed to more Pretoria based schools.
@beet: I’m really not sure , I would imagine Gareth Louw would move to 15 and Declan our obvious 10 , losing Kabelo at 9 has been devastating.Loss of our CW lock has created an oppurtunity for new players to stand up. Against Selborne we kept it in the forwards in the second half and managed to squeeze out a W in the last minute in trying conditions for us Vaalies. One would have imagined though that we would have had some cover for key positions .
@JD: You have me wrong there.For me the cup is important but as you mentioned,it’s much more important to compete and make friendships.
I have great respect for Jeppe, specially because you can field 20+ teams.I think there were rumours of a fixture between Garsies and Jeppe last year and I for one hope it can become a reality.
I was just surprised by @Quagga: comment, that’s why the question mark at the end of my sentence.
Hope it’s clarified…
@beet: Hi Beet, have never seen Parktown but this year the Westville boys are far more vocal i.t.o warcries than the last two or so years, which is great to see.
As for the cordoning of the field. It had to be moved as the field now stretches closer to the Bowdens pavilion because of the new gym/coffee shop at the Waxie’s end. In goals also smaller to accommodate the new “gym in a box” as you put it.
@Van: I don’t want sound disrespectful to any schools because the boys put a lot of effort into their warcries and some of the leaders are amongst the best entertainers out there. For me personally Parktown are my favourites. They are at Northwood every second year and they never ever disappoint. They just don’t stop for 70 minutes and their boys look like are really enjoying themselves during that time.
@JD: Raubenheimer’s injury is unfortunate. Hopefully he’s back to 100% very soon. It would be interesting to know where the Jeppe boys would fit in if he was available. Would Mokuena stay at 15? Gareth Louw looked dangerous playing at 15 at Grey PE.
I know you mentioned 9 and 10, but still unfortuate to think Jeppe could also have counted on a CW lock had circumstances been different.
I picked this Westville game on the basis that it being Ville’s first own streaming production, it would not be great and thought that the DHS filming crew having a bit more experience might make their game easier to watch as a recording later on. Perhaps it was because no one anticipated that Northwood would have such a great interschools day against DHS but as of yesterday (16/04), no DHS vs NW 1st XV game to watch online. Pity because I heard it was a good match. Glenwood have disruptions via injuries and other things and were off their best against a rampant Monnas who had awesome creativity and attacking speed to go with the usual physicality up front + aggressive competing for the ball at breakdowns. Even still Glenwood posted the match online which I watched over the weekend. I thought the Monnas u17 players were brilliant – hooker, flank, flyhalf, fullback.
As for this match, Westville were great and I have no regrets. On my previous visit to Bowdens I watched the old boys day Westville vs College game last year and as a neutral thoroughly enjoyed that match as well. There were some good tries scored that day.
Other things I noticed on Saturday is a gym in the box on the Waxies side of the field and the rope cordoning off the Jan Hofmeyr Drive side being moved much closer to the stand, which made spectator movement a little more of a challenge but was otherwise a welcomed adjustment.
@JD: JD, you are absolutely 100% correct. The spirit within which the games were played, especially the 1st XV was great.
The call from the Jeppe father of “Coommeee ooonnn Jeppe boys”, one after the other is fantastic to listen to.
Hope you have a good season going forward.
@Grizzly: Westville played really well. Grizzly its SBR not Rugby World Cup , I’m a Jeppe supporter and i can not see our current team with 2 major injuries at 9 and 10 coming close to beating Monna’s. However as supporters we enjoyed the competitive rugga and the spirit in which we were hosted by WB , and friendships formed . I was under the impression thats what these fixtures are all about. I’m sure its all about the trophy for you. Good luck for the remainder of the season.
@Quagga: What trials?Was it Monnas best 15?No way Jeppe beat the team that played Glenwood the past weekend?
Well done to Westville! to think Jeppe beat Monnas comfortably in the Lions trials recently….Westville must be quite a force to be reckoned with this year!
Well done Ville! Great to get the victory after last year. We again played all the rugby in the first half and then went to sleep in the 10 or so minutes after halftime. Some great tries scored, specifically the last one from a set piece. Could still do with some quick ball at phase play as we had the Jeppe defense on the ropes at times only for the slow clearance allowing them to organise again. The potential is there however for this to be a very successful season.