Wartburg Festival: College & Westville in action again

Maritzburg College and Westville will be in action at the same venue for the third weekend running when both schools participate in the WKS RUGBY HOCKEY NETBALL FESTIVAL at Wartburg, 33km outside Pietermaritzburg.

The two KZN powerhouse schools each played a match against different opponents at the KFC Voortrekker Night Series before they met on Friday, 28 February in possibly the most physical encounter of the local preseason to date. Conditions were initially conducive to playing ball through the hands type rugby but it was the defences of both schools that had other ideas and as a result continuity and constructive attack was hard to come by.

Westville started very brightly though. A clean take by no.8 Qume at two in the lineout inside the College half was the platform for a perfectly executed backline move that saw centre W Smith injecting some serious pace which propelled him past the midfield defensive line and once deep inside the College area, he put his fullback Buthelezi in for the opening try. Near perfect execution made the move look so simple. Other positives for Westville included harrying College at the breakdowns and the Griffons looking like the much stronger scrummers during the first half. Their tacklers also stood up well to some very direct but perhaps also a touch bit predictable crash-balling by College’s well-build KZN Schools centre Coetzee.

Although College might have been shaded in the first half, they equalised with a try of their own before the break. It came from a redzone lineout where the initial body positions of the College pack looked to be too high when they attempted to set their pod and thus should not have been able to threaten Ville with a rolling drive. Nevertheless College still managed to advance play enough to keep their opponents sucked in. This allowed captain on the night, no.8 le Roux who led by example particularly with his tireless ball-carrying, to attack the blindside and crash over in the left corner.

5-all was the halftime score.

Some rain changed playing conditions dramatically in the second half. College adapted by moving young Kriel (brother of SA schools and Baby Bok star Jesse), from fullback to flyhalf. He had responded very well to the defensive pressure at 15 and as a pivot he used his big boot to force Westville to bring the ball back up to the halfway from deeper positions. There were some good lessons in highball catching, counter attacking and kick chasing being learned in the process.

Both teams gave it their all on the evening but tended to neutralise each other’s biggest attacking threats.

The game decider turned out to be one of those an x-factor moments. From ball out the back of a ruck inside the Westville 22m area more or less in line with the posts, College flank Slade Stuart, wearing jersey no.20 responded so sharply and decisively to an opening near the fringe that he caught the defence unware. Once he’d made the break in lightning speed, he then displayed super balance as he dodged a couple of tackles on the way to the tryline. A brilliant piece of individualism, which Coetzee converted to hand Maritzburg College their victory margin of 12-5.

Heading to Wartburg this weekend, College still has time on their sides. Their first game is only on 29 March versus Northwood. Their only worries from a rugby perspective might be that coaches Strudwick and Smith still do not have access to a few of his best players who have summer sports commitments. Their opponents Sarel Cilliers from Glencoe in Northern Natal have produced the goods on a few occasions in the past, so they are not the sort of team any school wants to take too lightly especially at this early stage of the rugby season.

For Westville, Saturday at Wartburg will signal the start of the one-week countdown to the biggie – a home game against Glenwood. The Westville-Glenwood match promises to be one of the biggest of the entire KZN Top Schools season. It is a fixture that did not go ahead last year due to disagreements, which will no doubt add to the interest in this year’s game. This makes it vital for Westville to use this Wartburg fixture against Clifton to get their combinations in place as part of the fine-tuning process.

Rugby Fixtures for Saturday, 08 March 2014