Glenwood showed a lot of character and deserved a lot more out than they got out of the error-riddled match which visitors Monument won 21-8.
Monument was actually woeful and played well below the high standard they have set this season. They were unable to build phases as their anticipated domination of setpiece and loose proceeding up front did not materialise largely due to Glenwood’s tenacity in these areas of the game.
The deserved man of the match was Monument scrumhalf Jacques Joubert even though he only played one half of the match. His two tries were the difference between the teams.
His first try in the 7th minute, was setup by a line-breaking run down the left from outside centre Elmar du Plessis. At the critical moment, Joubert wrapped around du Plessis on the outside and in addition to that bit of cleverness, he displayed very good ball handling skills to hold onto a difficult pass. Flyhalf Xander Kruger converted to make it 7-0 to Monnas.
In the 21st minute, from one of the plethora of turnovers that occurred, Joubert fired up the afterburners and took full advantage of a hole in midfield that he had spotted. He proved to be extremely quick for a scrumhalf and was not hauled in from behind. Again Kruger converted, making it 14-0 to Monnas.
Glenwood was doing a lot of the constructive playing and earned a few kickable penalties. For a number of years now, goal-kicking has been the home team’s Achilles and on this day both flyhalf Maarten Holtzhausen and fullback Jerome Bossr missed vital shots at goal between them before Bossr eventually landed one in the 31st minute to give rise to the halftime score of 14-3.
The Witbulle extended their lead in the 46th minute. It was a rare moment of beauty as draw and pass play opened up a clear line for replacement Goodman Mkhwanazi to cross the white chalk. Kruger made no mistake with the kick, resulting in a 21-3 lead.
Glenwood’s best performances were delivered by their fringe players. Seun Maduna at centre was outstanding and their wing Devon Brough (wing) also weighed in with a handful positive contributions including a try in the 54th minute. The try was simple in nature. A good scrum by the hosts, was followed by a clean pick up, angled run and flat offload by prominent no.8 Marco Palvie, set the flying Brough off on an unstoppable run down the left-hand touch.
Glenwood had a few nearly opportunities to influence the scoreboard during the second half. There was also a memorable run by Monnas no.8 Len Massyn near the end.
Hats off to Monument for being able to win by such a convincing margin against a good team, while playing far below their best form.
Apart from a high count of handling errors, the final stats revealed a turnovers conceded count of Glenwood 14 Monument 9 while the missed tackles stacked up at Glenwood 24 Monument 21.
Glenwood:
15 Jerome Bossr, 14 GJ Lubbe, 13 Donovan du Rand, 12 Seun Maduna, 11 Devon Brough, 10 Martin Holtzhausen, 9 Jordan du Preez, 8 Marco Palvie, 7 Nama Xaba (c), 6 Austin Brummer, 5 Lencho Brynard, 4 Kwenzo Blose, 3 Renier van Rooyen, 2 Quinton Vorster, 1 Ajay Pretorius
Monument:
15 Ivan Smit, 14 Desbie Joubert, 13 Elmar du Plessis, 12 MJ Pelser, 11 Odwa Nkunjana, 10 Xander Kruger, 9 Jacques Joubert, 8 Len Massyn, 7 Henro Liebenberg, 6 Reyno Potgieter, 5 Thomas Meyer, 4 Ruan Vermaak, 3 Dewald Schoeman, 2 Justin Brandon (c), 1 Nathan McBeth
@Grasshopper: Not sure I agree with you on Bossr. I’ve seen him at 10 and 15, and certainly thought he had a better game against Monnas at 15 than against Westville at 10 where he was barely noticeable. He needs time and space and creates opportunities and is a threat at 15.
@Pedantic: Pedantic, your comment on wanting to see GW succeed is very true. If they could bring those GR8 kids all the way through their system. They would be the Grey Bloem of Durban. Their marketing hand covers an massive area and does very well in reaching out. It should be the norm at all schools to develop what you have in front of you. Isn’t that why a person decides to become a teacher or a coach?
@Pedantic: I retract my message, bloody troll in a lekker jersey
Sorry
@Ploegskaar:
Absolutely! But I heard the fatboy prefers the red nectar indigenous to the region ?
Either way, will certainly make contact – looking forward to my week off
@Pedantic: To be honest, I have never had a problem with what they do, rather with how they do it. Even the best selectively recruit to plug a few weaknesses, but then latest gr.9 for gr10, max. 2-3 players and also never high profile.
On a serious note, I hear you are coming down to see the JZN CW gnomes get stuck in the Markotter mud, hopefully you’ll buy the vetgat a beer!
@Pedantic: Yes, loyalty and grooming from grade 8 is best, look at House and Kearsney. They nurture not replace. I would still like a down the line fixture with Jeppe, KES or PBHS as this would show they do care about the lower teams.
@Ploegskaar: Agreed on that – only change I would like to see from GW is the grooming of players from G8 to 1st XV. Granted, there might be the odd late recruit but that should be the exception, not the rule. Believe it or not, most of us KZN SBR supporters want to see them succeed.
They set the bar in KXN / JXN but never display arrogance, in contrast to some of the wannabe’s in our province.
@Grasshopper: Glenwood currently sets the bar in JZN, even if the soccer and aquatics schools have the odd good year. They should continue with their current program, keep testing themselves against strong opposition and just keep fine-tuning their processes as they go along. They were gutsy against Monnas and with a little luck, could even have sneaked it. That’s making the news for the right reasons and gets a big tick from me
@Grasshopper: I think a combination of the Knights coming out after half time with the right attitude and Kearsney feeling they had already won the game led to a very even 2nd half.
Mthembu is a beast with ball in hand but then the flanker throws into the lineout – maybe a switch to loosehead would have helped Mthembu’s cause for CW – possibly the best ball carrier in KZN after Palvie.
@Pedantic: Gosh that No8 was tiny! Good skills but really a centre size. I thought it was going to be a 70 pointer at half-time but with Bros being there the Knights buckled down a bit…
@Grasshopper: He actually linked with the 8 Erlich … yes, he is the size of a scrummie but is a #8
Both the #8’s were the size of scrummies in that game and both were very good – one wonders what they could do in big bodies.
@Pedantic: Nice linking between your boy and the scrummie at Northwood, brilliantly worked try :-). The Kearsney lads must have been extremely frustrated in that 2nd half, although credit to Northwood for never giving up…
@Pedantic: I too prefer Holtzhausen at 12. Bossr is also better at 10, he didn’t feature on Saturday from 15…too far from the action..
@Bush: Would you like me to pull up his comment history and then you decide for yourself? Never heard one constructive opinion from him.
Edit: Just to add, he has two usernames here – one with a Westville jersey and one with a College jersey. Which one of you schools want to claim him ?
@Pedantic: Agreed, Monnas is a genuine Top5 side and losing to them by 13 is certainly no disgrace. In fact, Glenwood had their chances to draw level. However, my point was more about synergies in types of school rather than strength. I would play PBHS any day rather than Affies…no disrespect to Affies. PBHS and Glenwood are far better matched…
@Pedantic: Hi Pedantic, you didn’t just say that to Jordaan? Poor oke was just trying to voice an opinion.
@beet: Holtzhausen looks better at 12 IMO – the #10 jersey will be a tough battle in 2016.
I still feel Coetzee was unlucky not to earn himself a black and white jersey this year – excellent utility back option. He was used as a filler in a lot of the trials chukkas and didn’t disappoint once – this quota system is a b#$ch!
@Jordaan: What the hell? 21-8 is a very respectable score against a team like Monnas.
Do you even follow SBR or just a common troll ?
Ouch, Glenwood again trying to punch above their weight with a very average team, already lost to a lot of sides in KZN, so this was always going to be a push.
Going to be a another tough Craven Week for KZN this year!
@Grasshopper: Is Warren Whiteley actually afrikaans speaking cause it is very good?
@Grasshopper: I hear what you’re saying. I was just pointing out that what you’re hoping for does not seem to be in line with what umbiloburger has stressed as what GW aspires to achieve.
@Playa: Who cares if they Top5, only once Glenwood is regularly Top 5 for a decade running can they think they in that league. For now, let’s try and build relationships with schools with similarities. In terms of strength and numbers the schools I have mentioned are a perfect fit, very similar to Westville & College…
@Grasshopper: I think you’ve missed Mr Burger’s point:
“Monnas are a regular top 5 school and are worthy opponents. They’re also a good yard stick.”
Those little guys are not regular top 5 schools, which also doesn’t make them a good yardstick bar Grey PE as per:
“Also to play those other schools with the exception of Grey PE, wouldn’t enhance the GW rugby to any large degree.”
They wont be a super school b playing these mickey mouse English medium schools. Get with the programme, Grassy
@umbiloburger: Boet, dual medium means kids being taught in English and Afrikaans. As far as I am aware Glenwood is English medium and lessons (bar Afrikaans 2nd language) are taught in English. Also, exams are written in English. Jeppe, KES, PBHS and Grey PE are all English medium, so straight away their is synergy. Monnas is Afrikaans medium so only a handful of Glenwood boys will be able to communicate with them fluently. Anyway, not sure what the fixation is with playing the ‘top’ Afrikaans schools. Jeppe, KES, PBHS or Grey PE would provide more than enough competition for the A teams and down the line.
@umbiloburger: Can you define “Top”. Is this first in the rankings (1st team and A teams, or is there some sort of depth measure. If the aim is to pre-empt some sort of Schools Super League, where you send your flagship teams and get a nice headline for your marketing brochures, then great. Beware the unintended consequences though, I mean, you wouldn’t want to end up with a situation where you place so much emphasis on the top teams that you can only field 4 age group teams. That would look like a sports academy…
@Andre T:
@Andre T: Hahaha
@Grasshopper: dual medium…that ship kinda sailed ages ago I think TK just wants GW to be a super school, top at everything, tennis, swimming, cricket, hockey etc etc.
@umbiloburger: also those schools are if a similar age…
@umbiloburger: it’s about aligning with schools of a similar size, ethos, traditions & language. What is Glenwood’s obsession with playing top 10 sides. The schools I mentioned are aligned, Monnas is not. Unless it’s TK’s plan to turn Glenwood into a dual medium school. Jeppe, PBHS & KES will provide great opposition down the line. Jeppe Under14a recently beat Affies. Framesby & Monnas annual fixtures don’t gel for me. Playing 10 games against opposition it not looking out for ALL the teams….
@Grasshopper: Where does history start Hopper. Also to play those other schools with the exception of Grey PE, wouldn’t enhance the GW rugby to any large degree. Monnas are a regular top 5 school and are worthy opponents. They’re also a good yard stick.
@Beet that’s good news for KZN rugby if there’s so much competition for one position. There’s Jerome Bossr as well who can easily play at fullback as well.
@The Scout: Interesting year next year. The likes of Curtis Angus (Hilton), Cameron Ritchie (Kearsney) and Gert Coetzee (DHS) are likely to be up there challenging for KZN Craven Week honours at flyhalf.
Hopper I agree with you 100% but will the powers to be take note ??
@Valke: Am sure Holthauzen will make one of the KZN sides next year, he’s one of my favorite players. Agreed about the handling errors, it was the same even with 2nd team game. I feel that Glenwood were unlucky not to be given one of the two tries, I sat by the polls and the ball came off the foot but the refs said knock on.
Yes maybe Glenwood should rather play schools where they have a better chance of winning
Too many basic errors for Glenwood, especially in the lineout. You can’t lose that many lineouts and win the game. Glenwood did most of the playing, Monnas seemed asleep and had two against the run of play tries scored by players with X factor. Glenwood left 9 points or more with horrible kicking, that could have made it far closer. The fixture is a good one, but for me should be at festivals only. There is no history between these schools, replace it with a down the line fixture with Jeppe, KES, PBHS or Grey PE….
I was really disappointed in the basic skills of both teams.
I really feel sorry for the Monnas loosehead, he is a great prospect at his age.
Same with GW loosehead that came on.
Watched it on TV
the commentator on Supersport said that he thought Monas were just
cruising – got that impression too – but hats off to the Green machine who never gave up and as always an entertaining game
@The Scout: Still don’t understand how Maartin Holtzhausen did not make any of the KZN teams.
@Grasshopper, you boys tried on Saturday and shouldn’t be discouraged at all. I was impressed with Maduna and Holtzhauzen, but the question is who’ll play at 12 next year? It was a hard fought victory for the U15A, the future looks bright for the Green Machine.
It felt like tiny errors cost Glenwood dearly. A game they could have won with a little more luck because they manufactured a few try scoring opportunities
Well played Monnas, not even in 3rd gear really. Glenwood tried but just lacked the x in key areas. Great learning experience for the grade 11 boys I the side.