It appeared to be business as usual for Kearsney as they recorded a comfortable 41-10 victory against their brother school St Stithians in Randburg on Saturday. Kearsney has enjoyed a rather one-sided upper-hand in the 1st XV matches of this annual inter-schools fixture for a while now. However looking at this year’s lower age-groups A-team results, there are indications that the increased focus on rugby at Saints will turn them into a lot more 1st XV competitive team in the years to come.
Saints u16A beat Kearsney 32-19, while their u15A (23-27) and u14A (17-20) both lost narrowly.
Match report by Working Words: Kearsney 1st XV beat St Stithians 41-10
Kearsney travelled to Johannesburg for their annual fixture against St Stithians on a surprisingly hot winter’s day on the Highveld. The match was a start-stop affair with many stoppages for injuries, mainly to players from the hosting team. Unfortunately this prevented the visitors’ building momentum and rhythm. The matchdid, however, produce some sparkling moments with eight tries in total.
The first of the seven Kearsney tries resulted from a lineout steal by lock Ryan Jackson which James Tedder, Jared Meyer and Josh van Vuuren carried well with winger Cian Waugh diving over in the left corner.
The second came shortly afterwards in the same spot from centre Matthew Watts after an attack following a 22m dropout from the hosts. Van Vuuren delivered the brilliant last past with the try scorer outsprinting the cover defence for a 10 – nil lead.
Saints responded with a penalty rewarded from a Kearsney scrum infringement. Kearsney responded very quickly with an excellent counter attack try during which Meyer, Van Vuuren and Mitchell Nesbit did some good work in setting a ruck close to the hosts’ 22m. Kearsney captain Tristan Dixon collected the ball on a good line to be dragged down close to the line. The backspassed the ball wide for flanker Luke Croshaw to dot down for a Tedder converted try and 17 – 3 lead.
Saints responded with what proved to be their best passage of play with a converted try. It originated from very good pick and drive movements which sucked in the Kearsney defence to score out wide. Kearsney provided the last points of the half with a well worked try by Matthew Watts, resulting from a great run by right winger Nesbit and very good continuity play from the forward pack, to send the centre over for his second try of the match. The half time score was 22 – 10.
The first points in the second half came from centre Watts scoring his third try of the match after good support play, with scrumhalf Brendan Vorster who collected a tail ball from the lineout on his own 22 metre line. He ran through the Saints defenders and off-loaded to Watts on the Saints 22 metre line – a good piece of individual brilliance. Tedder failed with the conversion which proved to be a bad goal kicking effort on the day.
However, he scored a deservedly brilliant long distance solo try when he broke through the first line of defence to score under the posts and convert for a 34 – 10 lead.
The final points came from a customary try from hooker Van Vuuren. Kearsney attacked from a ruck situated deep in their own half with very good interplay between backs and forwards. Nicholas Luyt, Van Vuuren and lock Jackson on the left wing did some great work to feed the ball back in-field for Van Vuuren to score under the posts and for Cullen Waberski to convert.
The final score was 41 – 10 with visitors Kearsney the victors.
I’m sure that there are a few reasons why the rugby performances of Florida, and perhaps MV, have declined in the past four years, but I suspect one of them is the recruiting of Saints – e.g. quite a few of Saints u16 team came from Afrikaans primary schools that usually feed into Florida and MV.
Having said that, I’m still surprised at the significant decline in Florida’s rugby. My daughter attended provincial netball trials at the school a month ago, so I got to have a good look at it for the first time. The facilities (apart from the swimming pool) seemed top class, including two gyms, many rugby fields, etc….plus the school has a good reputation re academics and it has a decent number of learners – some 750 boys I think. Do talented kids from the Cape still attend Florida – e.g. Elton Jantjies?
I would love to see the day when Kingswood has annual fixtures against our two brother schools