KZN

Tony Jordan recently retired after 39 years of teaching service, over 25 of which was spent at Northwood. His replacement as headmaster at Northwood is a big rugby fan which bodes well for the school and school rugby in KwaZulu-Natal in general. Here is the newsletter confirming the new appointment.…

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.…

Monday turned out to be a sad day at Glenwood with news being shared that Peter Shedlock, an old boy from the Class of 1948 had passed away on Sunday, 03 February…

A good crowd turned up for the opening round of the Damelin Night Series. Port Natal has to be commended for creating a pleasant setting for visitors. …

Northwood is bound to draw the most attention from neutrals in attendance when the Damelin Night Series kicks off at Port Natal on 01 February 2013. The Durban North school would have stated their campaign to win back the floodlit rugby title they last held in 2011 as the clear-cut favourites, following months of hard work put in to assemble a team capable of challenging the very best that KwaZulu-Natal schoolboy rugby has to offer once the season proper starts in March.…

Glenwood has confirmed that their Invitation XV team for the Damelin Night Series kicking off on Friday, 01 February 2013, will be a blend of their extended 2nd XV squad which includes loads of boys that played 4ths and 5ths rugby in 2012.…

How Michaelhouse will fare during the 2013 season remains a bit of an enigma. Those that have followed the progress of the team will know they have the right ingredients for a meaty pack of forwards. Their power in the forwards should be most obvious come scrum-time. Here they could prove to be very hard to contain.…

Months after the initial Glenwood/Westville rugby fallout was blogged here on Schoolboyrugby.co.za, it has made the front page of a local KZN morning paper. Although it is not a new story, for many not close to school rugby in the province it will come as a huge shock to find out that two of KZN’s biggest schools don’t have any first term fixtures against each other on the cards as well as no rugby match in 2013.…

History has been made with Donald Ngwenya, the KZN Rugby Union Development Manager since 2007 being appointed as the Northwood Rugby Head Coach. Ngwenya beat out 21 other suitably qualified candidates that had applied for the position which became available overnight. He holds a Bachelors degree in Economics and a Sports Management Diploma from the University of Johannesburg but more importantly he has 23 years of coaching experience under the belt. He started his career in the classroom as a teacher, pretty much just like outgoing coach Swys de Bruin did.…

At the start of December 2012, Steve Botha the 2012 Backline Coach left College to take up a post at the brand new Sharks Academy in the United Arab Emirates. So although it appears as if Head Coach Ryan Strudwick has only been without an assistant for a month now, the truth of the matter is that he has not had any official assistant for a number of months.…

Neighbouring Durban schools Durban High School and Glenwood have a rich sports history filled with many great traditions and highlights. However late last year the DHS Governing Body made a decision to cancel all sports events against Glenwood for 2013. It was a seemingly harsh call but one which it’s members felt was totally justified and not taken lightly either. Like a few other off the field school rugby related problems in KwaZulu-Natal in 2012, the underlying reason for the Governing Body action was recruitment. …

Northwood is expected to announce the name their new 1st XV Head Coach during the first week of 2013. A few weeks ago Swys de Bruin, the then newly appointed Northwood Head Coach caught just about everyone by surprise when he broke the news that he was off to join the Golden Lions as the Backline Coach. The Durban North school looked to be in a spot of bother with their 2013 season kicking off earlier than most. …

Grant Kretzmann, the King Edward VII School (KES) forwards coach and assistant to Carl Spilhaus signed up earlier this week to be DHS’s new Head of Rugby. Kretzmann will be joining former KES headmaster Mike Fennell (DHS CEO) as new arrivals at the Durban school when the first term of 2013 starts.…

Well it feels like it was just yesterday when Swys de Bruin was being formally introduced as the new Head Coach at Northwood School. However today his Facebook page contained the following message:

Nog n era verby! Ek het die pos aanvaar by die Leeus as backline coach. Sien baie uit na die nuwe uitdaging!Ek glo die Here sal ons paaie gelyk maak!

Chris Luman has been named as the 15^th headmaster of the school. Luman, a Wynberg old boy who taught at both his alma mater and Queens before heading over to New Zealand, will take over the reigns during College’s milestone 150^th year.…

Steve Botha, the Maritzburg College Rugby Administrator and Backline Coach during the 2012 season has been snapped up by the Sharks Academy. Botha will head to the United Arab Emirates shortly to take up a brand new coaching position at one of the high performance academies that the Sharks are in the process of setting up. …

With a very eventful off the field rugby year almost behind them now, DHS’s main up and coming rugby related news story is meant to be and possibly still is the much anticipated public announcement of their new Head of Rugby.…

Sandile Kubeka the Kearsney College, KZN Schools and SA Schools rugby player has won Daily News School Sports Zone Hero of the Year award. He was chosen from a list of 36 school sports achievers.…

If it wasn’t official before, it is now. Northwood will be coached by Sharks Academy coach Swys de Bruin. Malcolm Kennedy is the new Head of Rugby and fitness guru Simon Vickers shifts to the position of Conditioning Coach. …

There is a lot said on these pages about schools who “buy” players – how about those parents who “sell” their kids – Cyndi

Your comments:-…

Information from a reliable source indicates that a meeting took earlier today (Tuesday 06 November) between the Glenwood and DHS heads. This was at the latter’s request. The meeting was to discuss the move of a prominent Grade 11 First XV rugby player from DHS to Glenwood.…