The KZN under-16 season definitely hasn’t been short of highlights. There have been some interesting results, exciting games and even times when games in this lower age-group has threatened to steal the limelight away from the more predictable outcomes of 1st team rugby due to the evenness of the competition that exists in the under-16 Tier-1 league this season. Saturday should be no exception when Westville hosts Michaelhouse, Hilton takes on Maritzburg College and St Charles plays at home to Northwood. DHS has been a bit of the boil but their current group of under-16’s have beaten Kearsney at under-14 and under-15 levels. Glenwood has their work cut out against Monnas.
Some of the KZN u16 results for 2013 to date:
DHS 10 Glenwood 48
DHS 12 St Charles 48
Glenwood 10 Hilton 8
Glenwood 12 Oakdale 13
Glenwood 15 Maritzburg College 13
Glenwood 7 Boland Landbou 16
Hilton 10 Northwood 0
Hilton 19 Marais Viljoen 24
Hilton 50 Port Natal 0
Hilton 7 Michaelhouse 3
Kearsney 5 Glenwood 17
Kearsney 15 Michaelhouse 13
Kearsney 14 Marais Viljoen 12
Kearsney 62 Clifton 0
Maritzburg College 13 PBHS 3
Maritzburg College 14 KES 12
Maritzburg College 21 Hudson Park 5
Maritzburg College 38 Northwood 5
Maritzburg College 60 DHS 6
Michaelhouse 13 Paarl Gim 26
Michaelhouse 14 Glenwood 7
Northwood 14 Jeppe 18
Northwood 22 Stellenberg 7
Northwood 5 Wonderboom 12
Northwood 8 Ben Vorster 19
Westville 13 Northwood 12
Westville 19 Hilton 8
A few Monnas results:
Monnas 57 Kempton Park 7
Monnas 36 Noordheuwel 0
Monnas 17 HJS Paarl 18
Monnas 10 Paul Roos 32
Monnas 21 HTS Middelburg 18
Monnas 45 Vereeniging Gim 0
Monnas 36 Pietersburg 0
Monnas 19 Centurion 7
Please post missing KZN results in comments below
@HORSEFLY NO.1: you have proved my point – I hope the DHS U15 and U14 teams keep it together for your 150th but the stats are against them. Perhaps you can draw some inference at U16 level as to how good your 1st XV may be two years hence – but to try and guestimate from U14 level won’t work.
@BOG: Moet onhoy Boishaai manne rus hul lyf vir die CW. Die outjies het maar ordiner teen Affies gelyk. Is seker die kamerahoek waarteen die videos geneem is of die “rooistoel” se editing span is baie goed.
@BOG:
They gym a lot ?
@Tjoppa: Most schools in SA can only dream of such a “night mare” Go and watch http://vimeo.com/67409182
@BOG: Last two years more of a nightmare of hoe Bog.
@HORSEFLY NO.1: That is why GCB Primary, have contributed the most SA players to the S15. But at least Chops has admitted that they have a “dream team”
@HORSEFLY NO.1: Mate – it isn’t about a few players leaving and battling to plug the gaps. I think there needs to be an entire siesmic culture shift at DHS when it comes to rugby. 20 years ago, there would have been 20 able players to play in those guys places. Now you cannot put out enough teams to match up to Kearsney. Get the culture and the structures sorted out and the rest will take care of itself. A patch-job will be just that – a temporary fix of a serious problem. If rumours are to be believed there are a lot of disgruntled players looking for a way out – as some have already tried and failed to do.
If you think I take pleasure in any of this – I don’t. It is a problem which I would love to see fixed. I just think you seem to be treating the symptoms and not the underlying causes.
@HORSEFLY NO.1: That is what happens if you buy a dream team at 13 years old. Grey has shown that building a great 1st 15 only starts at the age of 16.
@Pedantic: yip, with at advent of HP Centre rugby, and the buying, selling, leasing and rental of players, there is limited significance of the lower age groups performances translating into anything meaningful by the time they reach open rugby. MHS would certainly be a different team without him. At least he chose the right school
@School:
Yeah definitely. I think that is one problem that this years U14 may encounter in a year or two and its also showed in the first team games this year.
The DHS boys are considerably smaller and this has counted against them massively. Let’s not forget that most of the 1st side is part of a good gr11 group that had decent results in U14,U15 and U16. But size this year has been their biggest downfall and will continue to be up until they step up and put those boys in the gym.
I also think conditioning is a problem at DHS. These boys have all the talent but often put out smaller sides in u15 and U16, this thread has been going on since “09”
School needs to take more care of their players.
@ Pedantic : Have to agree about Pretorious, he really caught the Westville defense off guard in the first 10 minutes, after those minutes I think the Westville defense had shut him down quite well, stopping him from getting good ball.
These were their results in U14:
Vs kearsney: won 12-7
Vs port natal: won 24-10
Vs College: lost 5-10
Vs Michaelhouse: won 19-7
Vs Northwood: won 22-0
Vs Glenwood: lost 14-0
Vs Westville: lost 13-8
Vs Hilton: won 21-10
Vs St Charles: won 42-3
Very unfortunate what’s happened at DHS U16. A good,talented side in U14 has been reduced to what I saw yesterday. A group of boys relying on some individuals to pick them up and make things happen.
Since U14 they’ve lost:
Prop(northwood)
Prop(Glenwood)
Lock(went back to hometown in Newcastle)
Flank(Kearsney)
Flyhalf(hockey)
Wing(stopped playing.)
Wing(stopped playing)
Centre(think was expelled, not too sure)
Now that’s 8 players from the U14 side. 3 of them were KZN U13 players and of those 3 one is in the KZN U16 side.
Its been tough for them and I seriously think School needs to bring in some new players to fill at least some of those gaps for next year.
@McCulleys Workshop: Especially when those acquisitions are of the quality of Bader Pretorius – what a catch for KZN school rugby!
@Roger: good comment Roger, I think there is limited significance, especially when late acquisitions are made.
@Tarpeys: Howzit Tarpey, yes they won by 1 point. MHS 2nd’s had a good game, also beating the Ville. The 1st’s score was flattering in favour of MHS, the margin should have been greater.
I hear via a source that Michaelhouse u16s beat Westville today. If that is indeed true, then it adds to the point of this article. Never a dull moment indeed.
I think the two important Kearsney results that are missing in your list:
Kearsney 14 – Marais Viljoen 12
Kearsney 15 – MHS 13
Keep in mind that this group only had one provincial rep when they started (Kitching from KZN U13B) – he subsequently moved to Westville, so these boys have had to dig deep and work hard to get competitive. Their U15 year was a frustrating one as they lost most games, but losing margins were small.
Notable additions to the team since G8 – scrumhalf (who replaced Kitching), centre (From Grey PE) and very recently a flyhalf from Jhb who has only played 2 games as far as I can recall. Pau is having a tough season because of inuries so hasn’t really had an impact yet.
Bottom line … when you and your team mates get hammered for 2 years it tends to galvanise the passion in the team and you either sit back and take it or stand up and change it.
Correction. Monnas didn’t play PaarlGym. They lost 32 – 10 against PRG.
Monnas beat KES 22-7 at U16A level, 78-0 at U15A level (ouch) and 43-12 at U14A level. Remember those results and do a comparision in 2014, 2015 and 2016 at 1st XV level – that’s why I think this fascination with U14 and 15 results and in some way trying to fathom how good your 1st XV will be in four to five years is crazy. The KES 1st XV this year lost only 2 games at U14 level – work that out??
@ GT- Bipolar
Nothing like House v Hilton where the family draws a line in the sand until after the game. I do have some very good pills though 
. The games this weekend will go a long way to sorting put who is who in the U16 age group.
@ Amalekite- Yes Kearsney have had several new arrivals since U14 whereas DHS have lost several including the likes of Mr T who went to NW. The swing could be as much as 7 boys which is significant. What concerns me about DHS is that they have gone the other way to Kearsney and from 4 teams at U14 there are now only 2. From top to bottom there is a problem and it is very difficult to be competitive without depth.
@Tarpeys: I have to agree with you. The interesting thing is that Kearsney could only manage 3 U14 teams, but they now have 4 U16 teams, so they must have had new arrivals since U14.
College 20 – Michaelhouse 17
Shows how close this age group is. No KZN undefeated teams, Glenwood beat College, College beat House, House beat Glenwood.
College hung in there against a late surge from House who scored 2 tries (12 points in the last 5 or 6 minutes), and then had a chance to win it against Glenwood, missed a 30m shot at goal on the final whistle.
DHS – not a real mystery to the insiders I hear. Perhaps all will be revealed by the end of July?
Two schools surprise me a little in these results. Firstly, DHS were decent as under 14s but they seem to have fallen off badly since. That heavy loss to SCC shows how drastic their demise has been. Kearsney are almost the complete opposite. They were terrible as under 14s. I remember watching them against Michaelhouse that year and they couldnt even string together more than one phase at a time and lost four tries to zero. They seem to have picked up quite nicely since then. It would be interesting to hear what those two schools attribute their contrasting fortunes to.