| SLOT | DATE | SCHOOL | SCHOOL | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09h10 | Sat.05Mar | Maritzburg College u16 | – | – | Sarel Cilliers u16 | |
| 10h05 | Sat.05Mar | Maritzburg College Black | – | – | Glenwood Barely Green | |
| 11h10 | Sat.05Mar | Maritzburg College Red | – | – | Sarel Cilliers | |
| 12h15 | Sat.05Mar | Glenwood u16 | – | – | Westville u16 | |
| 12h10 | Sat.05Mar | Glenwood Dark Green | – | – | Westville 1st XV Inv | |
| 14h15 | Sat.05Mar | Weston | – | – | Voortrekker (PMB) 2nd XV | |
| 15h20 | Sat.05Mar | Linpark | – | – | Sarel Cilliers 2nd XV | |
| 16h25 | Sat.05Mar | St Charles u16 | – | – | DHS u16 | |
| 17h20 | Sat.05Mar | St Charles 2nd XV Inv | – | – | DHS 2nd XV Inv | |
| 18h25 | Sat.05Mar | St Charles 1st XV Inv | – | – | DHS 1st XV Inv | |
| 19h30 | Sat.05Mar | Voortrekker (Pmb) | – | – | Howick |
Voortrekker of Pietermaritzburg are in the process of putting the final touches to their extremely popular KZN schoolboy rugby preseason event. For many years it labelled as a “Night Series” and held over two successive Friday evenings but for 2022 there is a huge bonus for faithfuls as it changes to become a full-on rugby day to be played on Saturday 05 March 2022.
Committed to participating are the preseason teams (minus many summer sportsmen) of well-known schools:
Durban High School
Glenwood High School
Maritzburg College
St Charles College
Westville Boys’ High School
Also in action are Linpark and Scotsville (from Sleep Hollow itself), Weston (the agricultural school from Mooi River) and Northern Natal town Glencoe’s finest – Sarel Cilliers.
The first match kicks off at 08h00 and main game at 19h30 will see the home team Voortrekker taking on Howick (from the town near Midmar Dam).
As usual Voortrekker offers safe parking inside the school grounds, tasty food and a pleasant, relaxing environment for spectators of all ages.
@star: I spoke to a Hilton student. Surprisingly HC don’t seem to have any extra rugby event planned for their 150th.
@beet: Thanks for the detailed reply. Really interesting to hear.
Yeah was wondering if MBC would have the pack to match their backline. Will be sad if not, as it all begins up front. Hilton etc. know this and it may prove the difference in the end.
@Skywalker: I have been to quite a few KZN preseason matches and the best advice I can offer is to not to look too deeply into the final scores. There are however very good indicators that do come to the fore when watching any warmup that is taken serious. I also want to say that I will do my best to look past an obvious factor in KZN SBR now which is the late importing of talent. It is something that a few local schools got knocked for in the past but it seems that in order to compete, all the major schools have hoped on board and one has to feel for schools in other regions who will be sorely missing some of the talents who are likely to wear Black and White at the youth weeks.
For years now the Glenwood marketing and comms have been on the ball and quite open, so when they didn’t want to share the teamlists because they are still experimenting, there is a lot to read into that in terms of boys who may feature for the 1st XV vs NW playing in the earlier game etc etc.
I thought the Glenwood Light Green (B) group did well. They have work to do on syncing but their basic platforms suggested that this week they can focus more on cohension. Since College only start in a couple of weeks time, they have time on their side to get to where Glenwood are.
Sarel tried very hard and they look like they have good coaching. This weekend they are up against Voortrekker Beth 2nd XV and I expect that against opposition where they can make their platforms count and have better quality and more ball possession, they will come away from FS with a win. However against College A group they provided a good first hit out of the season but could not offer enough resistance.
The College backline is likely to be red hot this year. The French Top 14 style 9-10 AJK looks like a good prospect. In midfield LP and LB look as good as any centre pairing in SA this season. They have the combo of pace and power but probably most encouraging is they are looking to be playmakers for those who run off their shoulders. The College left wing also sparked some magic and they have versatility in the line giving them selection options. SN at 15 proved last year that he is electric but had a quite day. I’m sure he will produce plenty of fireworks in the months to come. The thing the acid test will be their pack. All-in-all, I think Coach Orch will be reasonably happy.
Westville doesn’t have a proper BE so they have to work a little harder that tne rest to stay competitive IMO but every year they surprise me. It looked like they really lost out ITO good teams these past couple of years due to Covid but this year their boys look decent. I thought they have boys in the pack who carry nicely and have workrate. The backs nearer the fringe looked a bit small defensively so Coach Jubz and his team are going to have to be smart to mask that if these are their intended 1st XV starters. The showstopper was however the Ville fullback. He was brill. His pace, lines, finishing produced two fantastic tries and without having watched the later games, it would have taken a special effort to dethrone him as player of the Day/Night Series. Sadly he was concussed near the end.
I’m not sure Coach Derek H and his team were happy with what Glenwood Dark Greens produced for most of the match. They have had a few practice matches under the belt but in terms of gelling, there was not much of that on show until near the end, when their more familiar brand of high tempo rugby eventually revealed itself and they started to find holes and plenty of metres with ball-in-hand. I suspect a tough week ahead for the players.
Didn’t get to see School vs Saints. Saints did say that they lost out on two good years due to Covid and this season was going to be a harder one for them in the KZN top league. DHS apparently have a red hot 13 so it would have been nice to watch him in action. DHS has a potentially tricky trip to Bethlehem to face Vories this Saturday but considering their original plan was to travel to the Cape to play Paarl Boys High, I think they will have far better odds of winning now.
Any feedback on the games at the Night Series?
Yes I would imagine Hilton would have another strong team. They have had nearly 2/3 years going unbeaten at 1st team I think? so doubt they would let it slip now. They would have planned and recruited for this year I’m sure.
I see there are 2 Glenwood U19 teams( Barely and Dark Green) . I presume Dark Green is the A side which just lost to the Westville Invitational 1st team. I agree with Beet that Hilton in their 150th year celebrations( and my 40th) have been building for something special.
@Skywalker: Hi. Its so hard to form opinions at the stage. With it being Hilton’s celebration year, their team is expected to be quite strong team and this MC year has been strong in KZN but bearing in mind that u15 level was their last full age-group season. I doubt this Saturday will offer many clues either but might reveal a bit more about what Glenwood, Westville and DHS have in terms of useful players.
Hi Beet/others
Any views on the KZN teams above for this year?
MBC had quite a team last year and still some stars in the backline as far as I know, but do they have the forward pack to match?