Westville got their 2013 rugby campaign off to a winning start with victories at the Voortrekker Rugby Night Series in Pietermaritzburg on Friday evening. In poor weather their 1^St XV defeated Maritzburg College 10-5 followed by their 2^nd XV recording a 21-7 win against the Voortrekker 1^st XV.…

Maritzburg College has a pre-season game against Westville scheduled for this evening at 18h30 as part of the Voortrekker Rugby Night Series. Just like last year a number of players are not available mainly because of summer sports commitment. There are however still good indications of first choices in various positions provided by some of the team selections made for this evening’s game.…

It’s still early days and Westville like all other schools competing at this time of the year are using game time as part of their preparations for the regular season. One imagines that there is a fair amount of tweaking to be done and a few players are still unavailable due to other commitments. Nevertheless their 1st XV and 2nd XV selections for tonight’s Voortrekker Night Series makes for interesting reading.The games on are Westville 1st XV vs Maritzburg College at 18h30 and Westville 2nd XV vs Voortrekker 19h30. …

With Northwood’s first assignments of the KZN Tier-1 season being March dates with Kearsney on their lush green Reece-Edwards pitch in Durban North followed by Michaelhouse up at the Meadows in Balgowan, they might well have been tipped to cause an early season upset or possibly even two.  The six pre-season games at the Damelin Night Series provides an excellent lead up to these two regular season games against opponents who are expected to have had less match practice and should therefore be a little cold coming into those Northwood games. …

Some good news. DHS has put their differences with Glenwood aside and all fixtures between the Durban neighbours have been reinstated with immediate effect.…

In-form and unbeaten Port Natal moved a big step closer to securing a place in this year’s Damelin Night Series thanks to an after the hooter goal against George Campbell. Trailing 22-17 with time up on the clock, the White Knights carried the ball from halfway to over the try-line via a series of phases that showed a huge amount of character.…

One of the first questions that came up when the new SARU age-band rules were implemented was what effect will it have on the smaller schools in KwaZulu-Natal. The ruling which comes into effect this year prohibits all under-16 players from playing in under-19 (open age-group) games, something that was allowed up until the end of the 2012 season. Many of the KZN Tier-2 schools do not field an under-16 age group. Players go directly from under-15 to the open age-group. …

Northwood had to come from 6-0 down at half time to edge out George Campbell 10-6 in the first major clash of this year’s Damelin Night Series at Port Natal. The match may not have been everyone’s cup of tea due to the number of unforced errors committed but in the context of it still being the first week of February and just the second competitive game of the season for both teams following relatively easy first round matches last week, the match provided good spectator entertainment and an opportunity to gather a lot of meaningful intel on the teams.…