The conundrum caused by schoolboy rugby inconsistency played out at Grey High School’s festival on match day two and the digital scoreboard errors on the streaming feed helped make it a memorable day.
KES arrived in Gqeberha having edged out Jeppe thanks to a last play of the match try to secure 23-20 home win. Both Gauteng boys’ schools have talented individuals in the squads and are in fine form this season.
Graeme from Makanda was never going to be the easiest side to put away, so the Red Army winning that first match by a 12-point margin was acceptable if the low scoring result of 12-0 wasn’t anticipated.
Jeppe were the real head-turners of the first day. They were off the charts in a devastating win of 51-5 against a formidable Queen’s College from Komani. Again the result was accepted, it the huge margin of victory that was a wow-factor. Congolese born outside centre and captain Exuace Kevani continued to establish as one of the hottest property backs in the country.
Meanwhile a struggling Selborne from East London did produce better form in a festival day one 32-0 win against Kariega’s Brandwag, who themselves have seem far better seasons in recent times that their 2023 campaign to date. The Selbornians had however succumbed to Queen’s (15-20) immediately prior to the festival and even KES (0-20) in Jozi earlier in the month.
So all evidence pointed to Jeppe dealing with Selborne with a level of scoreboard comfort, and then KES doing the exact same to Queen’s. But those kinds of obvious scripts just don’t exist in schoolboy rugby. Instead spectators and online viewers were treated two thrillers which went down to the wire. When combined with the humdinger finish involving the hosts edging out Westville 17-15 in the final game, it helped transformed Saturday afternoon at Grey into a grand entertainment package.
Selborne proved to be a team on a mission and took the match to Jeppe. Both schools have black and white hooped jerseys as part of their 1st XV kit, so it was Jeppe who donned on black jerseys this time around. Wind assisted in the first half, the Border boys went into the break 17-12 up. Even though it was an outstanding half, the action-packed half to come is what defined it as match of the festival.
It’s not often that a conversion is something to remember but midway through the half, Selborne flyhalf Daniel Larkan slots the most amazing kick that makes provided conclusive evidence of the strength of the wind at times. In the context of the outcome, it was a vital kick from a tricky angle.
The second half saw Jeppe surprisingly trying to run most things from deep instead of kicking for position first. Selborne capitalised to grow their lead to 31-17 and it was their fifth try conversion where the producer erred to reflect 29-17 instead.
Jeppe narrowed the lead to 31-24, before Selborne opted for a kick at goal to extend things to 34-24.
This was the score with as little as 2:30 of the 60 minutes left to play and then Jeppe scored their fifth try – 34-29.
From the kickoff, Jeppe collected, drove it up a bit, freed the ball up for five passes out wide into the hands of replacement speedster Bokamoso Maphisa, who set off on an incredible 70m run that looked certain to end over the touchline. He somehow avoided going down in two strong contacts near the right touch and completed a superb try in the corner.
Watching online, this looked like the sensational winning try at 34-32 to Jeppe. It was however a 34-all draw. What a pulsating match.
To KES’s misfortune, Queen’s looked like a different beast from the team that played Jeppe. They played with the wind behind them in the first half, showing great determination. The key moment was when right wing Siya Konki crossed the line in the 25th minute and had the presence of mind to correct his balance near the right corner and run around to score under the sticks.
The conversion that followed was crucial for two reasons. For one it proved to be the two point winning margin in the end. It was also missed by the SSS producer, so the online digital scoreboard was incorrect from that point of showing 12-5 instead of the correct score of 14-5.
14-12 was the halftime score before Queen’s grew their lead to 21-12.
KES turned to their very dependable players ever-present James Kobrowiksy, big Siphosethu Mndebelele (2), and composed Vusi Moyo (10) to score their tries.
At the death Kobrowiksy, small in size but huge in heart carried well to cross the white chalk but was held up. KES continued to press in the red zone, came close but could not capitalise from the ensuring scrum and the clock ran out of time.
The final whistle was so bizarre. Queen’s players looked over the moon “like they won the World Cup” at the 19-all draw being reflected on the monitor while the KES boys looked dejected. Anyway it was in fact 21-19 to QC.
Included in the memorable scenes of joy at full-time were two Kudus players jumping up to hug their dedicated head coach Clinton Loest, with him ending up lying on the ground beneath them.
@beet: If there is one thing that I dislike about rugby, it’s the fact that referees often have huge impacts on results – sometimes due to incompetence, but mostly due to the extremely complicated laws of the game. My other pet peeve is the legalised obstruction allowed via a rolling maul…and the many different ways that refs interpret the defence of same.
@Vleis: Agreed. I was so sure it was going to be a penalty and maybe more. Instead knock-on called, followed by time up and the final whistle.
Then in the main match when it seemed game on with a few minutes left and Westville leading 15-10, the ref made what looked like a couple of bizarre decisions involving the players ahead of the kicked ball not retreating 10m back. He penalised Westville players for being inside the 10m when Grey kicked the ball the first time and the second time minutes later Grey did the same thing again with consecquence, no penalty to Westville. Either penalty to Westville, might have seen them end the match in Grey territory. Instead they ended up conceding a penalty try and losing the match.
The Law states:
Was in front of a team-mate who kicked the ball and fails to retire immediately behind an onside team-mate or an imaginary line across the field 10 metres on that player’s side from where the ball is caught or lands, even if it hits a goal post or crossbar first. If this involves more than one player, then the player closest to where the ball lands or is caught is the one penalised. This is known as the 10-metre law and still applies if the ball touches or is played by an opponent but not when the kick is charged down.
Sanction: The non-offending team can choose either:
Penalty at the place of infringement; or
Scrum where the offending team last played the ball.
I watched the last ten minutes of the KES v QC game on the SSS feed and was also confused by the QC celebrations, until I found out later that the SSS scoreboard was incorrect.
Can anyone help me with the ref’s decision at the end of the game. In the last move, he appeared to raise his arm to signal a penalty advantage to KES after the QC scrummie made a deliberate knock-on. However, after said last move broke down, he blew for the end of the game, instead of returning to the penalty advantage to KES…plus a probably yellow for the QC scrummie. I can only assume that he thought that it was a knock-on by the QC scrummie, which does not really make sense?
Nicely written!
Again shows the unpredictability of SBR, especially in trying conditions.
Must say, I really like Jeppe and their accomplishments this year. All age groups!