Night Series: Port Natal gives the Glenwood Inv XV a tough test

Hosts Port Natal gave the Glenwood Invitation XV a very good run for their money during the Round-3 of the Port Natal Night Series (sponsored by the Geldenhuys Broers Bedryf). The visitors scored 8 unanswered points in the last few minutes of the game to eventually run out 15-6 winners in the end but they were pushed all the way by a very determined White Knights team.

They might have lost but it’s was hats off to both the Port Natal players and their coaching staff for the brave effort they made. At one stage the underdogs looked like they were going to press on and win the game. First of all the coaching staff headed up by Jan van Straaten did their homework extremely well. All the preparation would have come to nothing had the White Knights on the field not risen to the occasion and executed to plan. The tactics took into account that the GI’s would have more ball possession so as a defensive unit Porties targeted many of the areas which had made the GI’s so effective in their previous two games.

It started at the rucks. The Glenwood Invitation team’s cleaning out had been sublime before this game. However Port Natal were up to the task of getting their opponents onto the deck promptly, then getting their hands on the ball quickly and finally getting support cleaners to the rucks early. They won a number of penalties this way and when they didn’t they did enough to downgrade the quality of recycled ball possession coming the GI’s way and gave themselves time to reorganise for the next wave of attack.

Prior to this outing, the Glenwood Invitation XV were in exquisite form particularly with ball in hand and showing of signs of cruising into the final unchallenged. They began this game at their usual 100 miles per hour rate. The ball was spread around with a great deal of confidence and as usual what made the aggressive attacks so pleasing to watch was that it had method. There was nothing wild or complacent about it. Nevertheless the GI’s were not able to turn possession into early points as they had done in previous games. Porties were up to the task of putting in meaningful tackles and simultaneously taking away the channels that GI support runners had made their own in games before.

Faced with an increased defensive intensity, the GI’s confidence gradually diminished. Teamwork that had stood them in such good stead had to make way for individual brilliance. However without the continuity that came from working together, the Glenwood Invitational team could not get the scoreboard working.

It was Port Natal that struck first blood. Converted scrumhalf to flyhalf Carlo Gresse had an outstanding game under the circumstances. When the White Knights had the ball, they still had to deal with a very quick defensive onslaught themselves and Gresse along with his scrumhalf Frans remained composed under some trying circumstances to ensure that retain possession for their team.  Carlo landed an early penalty to put Port Natal 3-0 up, a lead that they held onto until the halftime break.

Just about everything that Port Natal had done with the possible exception of scrumming deserved praise.  Porties looked like they were struggling in the scrums. Their first few feeds resulted in tightheads due to the pressure. It looked to be an area that Glenwood could have dominated but the referee was perhaps too strict in this department and his whistle prevented a contest from taking place a lot of the time.

The White Knights played with the wind at their backs in the second half. They grew in confidence. More possession, more territory and more opportunities to score points came their way. Gresse converted 1 out of 3 penalty kicks at goal in this half. The hosts certainly looked in it to win it as the half wore on; this when Glenwood appeared to have run out of ideas on how to keep the ball and breach the home team’s defence. Porties employed a tactical kicking game on a few of their plays. The ideas were good in terms of strategy but had a couple of their long kicks been a little more angled towards touch, the overall benefits could have been huge given the state of the GI’s lineout work.

It was actually ironic how the opportunity for Glenwood’s first points came about. By a long way, the weakest point of the visitors’ game on the night was their lineout set-piece. Here Port Natal used their own height advantage well but their attempts to disrupt proceedings were helped in part by the windy conditions and also by some technically poor lineout throw-ins that gave GI locks very few chances to win quality ball. The absence of an athletic Wandi Mazibuka –type jumper in a “Chappies” jersey was also noted.

It was one of those wayward throw-ins that missed its target by a long way and somehow found its way to GI prop Christopher Kloppers at the back. He charged downfield and laid a good platform deep in the Porties half for the Glenwood Invitational team to attack off. When the GI’s won a penalty near the goal-line, a tap-and-go was passed to replacement flank McMillan Muller, who has become a bit of a specialist in using his power to get over from close range.

Donovan du Randt converted the try to make it 7-3 to the visitors.

Porties struck back immediately after the kick-off with Carlo making it 7-6 approaching midway through the half.

With only 2-minutes left to play Donovan extended the Glenwood Invitations lead to 10-6 with another penalty. Had Port Natal converted their earlier opportunities on the other side they could well have still been in the lead at that stage. The fact that they were not meant they had to take risks at the end. The Glenwood Invitation side profited from this. They put together a really good attack at the death. Good passing and speed gave KZN Sevens player, wing Sam Matiwane space on the outside and he finished in style to complete the scoring at 15-6 to the Glenwood Invitational XV.

The GI’s are still unbeaten in this Night Series and very much on track to make the final on Friday, 21 February but the closeness of this match was good for the competition as a whole and good for Glenwood as part of their preseason preparations. Areas of weakness were highlighted and can now be worked on over the next month or so.

For Port Natal who played this match in training jerseys, each year it’s tradition for their 1^st XV players to earn the right to wear their proper 1^st XV white jerseys that give rise to the name “White Knights.”  Based on this spirited performance they truly deserved that honour now. Although there is still a Round-4 to come on Tuesday, ahead lies a quarterfinal of sorts for Porties against DHS on Friday, 14 March.

Talking DHS, the early Round-3 game saw them cruise past Durban Development  during a 50-minute expression session that showed off their expansive rugby skills. The 8 tries to 1, 48-5 score required quite a bit of hard physical work to be done up front and the DHS commitment throughout was good. Durban Development tried their best and were rewarded with a second half try for the inside centre who is quite a useful player.

Pinetown caused a huge upset in the late game when they beat George Campbell 14-5 in a come from behind win. Campbell started the game like they were going to enjoy themselves and played some flowing rugby early on. It was however Pinetown who wanted this win more. They grabbed the lead at 7-5 and held it at the break when Campbell missed a penalty. Pinetown’s scrumhalf scored the try that put the match out of the Campbell reach. The other outstanding Pinetown back was the outside centre Kenny. The final whistle produced the most memorable moments of the evening. Many dejected Campbell players fell on their backs while Pinetown student supporters in their blue blazers sprinted onto the pitch to embrace their over the moon players. It was a scene that showed the passion of schoolboy rugby at it’s best.  This victory was huge for Pinetown and a low point for George Campbell rugby.