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. However a decision to withdraw their 2nd XV from the 2nd team Night Series competition in order to rather focus on fielding a 30-player rotated team during the 1st XV matches at the Damelin sponsored event will probably go a long way towards leveling the playing fields. Not that the defending champions George Campbell or host Port Natal would have been pushovers under any different Northwood selection circumstances. With these pre-season 55-minute games being played in the sweltering heat of Durban’s hottest and most humid month of February, they pose quite a challenge to players who are trying to get back into the sway of things. The team that master ball-handling, disciple at the breakdown, adapting to any new laws, team cohesion and fitness first has the edge on opponents irrespective of the quality and/or size of individuals they are up against. This means it is quite likely that outcomes in this shortened version of the game could cough up a few surprises and might not have any bearing on form during the regular season . Reasonably speaking, Northwood are be expected to field a more 2nd XV type team for their opener against Durban Development, saving their main strike force for the clash with George Campbell next Tuesday evening. Although not yet confirmed, it’s believed that Northwood and Campbell will combine forces to form one of the invitation teams for the Wildeklawer Super Schools festival at Maritzburg College on 02 and 04 May.
| TIME/DATE | TEAM/ROUND | SCHOOL | SCHOOL | |
| Fri, 01/02/13 | Round 1 | |||
| 15h45 | 2nd XV | George Campbell | vs | Pinetown |
| 16h45 | 2nd XV | Port Natal | vs | Glenwood Inv |
| 18h00 | 1st XV | Northwood | vs | Durban Dev |
| 19h00 | 1st XV | George Campbell | vs | Port Shepstone |
| 20h00 | 1st XV | Port Natal | vs | Pinetown |
| Tues, 05/02/13 | Round 2 | |||
| 17h00 | 1st XV | Port Natal | vs | Port Shepstone |
| 18h00 | 1st XV | Pinetown | vs | Durban Dev |
| 19h00 | 1st XV | George Campbell | vs | Northwood |
| Fri, 08/02/2013 | Round 3 | |||
| 16h00 | 2nd XV | Port Natal | vs | Pinetown |
| 17h00 | 2nd XV | George Campbell | vs | Glenwood Inv |
| 18h00 | 1st XV | Port Shepstone | vs | Durban Dev |
| 19h00 | 1st XV | Northwood | vs | Pinetown |
| 20h00 | 1st XV | George Campbell | vs | Port Natal |
| Tues, 12/02/13 | Round 4 | |||
| 17h00 | 1st XV | George Campbell | vs | Durban Dev |
| 18h00 | 1st XV | Port Natal | vs | Northwood |
| 19h00 | 1st XV | Port Shepstone | vs | Pinetown |
| Fri, 15/02/13 | Round 5 | |||
| 16h00 | 2nd XV | George Campbell | vs | Port Natal |
| 17h00 | 2nd XV | Pinetown | vs | Glenwood Inv |
| 18h00 | 1st XV | Pinetown | vs | George Campbell |
| 19h00 | 1st XV | Port Natal | vs | Durban Dev |
| 20h00 | 1st XV | Northwood | vs | Port Shepstone |
| Fri, 22/02/13 | Finals | |||
| 15h00 | 2nd XV | 5th place | vs | 6th place |
| 16h00 | 2nd XV | 3rd place | vs | 4th place |
| 17h00 | 1st XV | 5th place | vs | 6th place |
| 18h00 | 1st XV | 3rd place | vs | 4th place |
| 19h00 | 2nd XV | 1st place | vs | 2nd place |
| 20h00 | 1st XV | 1st place | vs | 2nd place |
@ZnCoach: No – not NW itself but some supporters who made some snide remarks about GW imports after Glenwood beat them last season. Big up’s to the school for fronting up against Marne although I think at that stage of the season it was well known that his presence in the team was having a disruptive effect.
@Green Hopper: I think Glenwood are using this as 2nd XV trials and you can see this in the way the boys are playing – individual performances trumping teamwork. Good move I think. Not too worried about giving NW a workout at this stage – that will come later in the year!!
@Greenwood: You must have been sitting right behind me when you video’ed that – I was just to the left of the boy’s mother – the lady going balistic after he scored. Always enjoy seeing a front row forward outsprint a bunch of backline players. Looks like he got the ball illegally from the ruck though……..
Also really liked the smallish black boy at flyhalf – the guy with the black and white scrumcap. Very good distribution skills and can read the game very well.
The ball handling was very frustrating but a lot of individual performances which bode well for the season in the lower teams. Nice to see Glenwood working on the depth – the work done in the rugby academy is paying off.
@Greenwood: nice
keep teh clips coming if you can , i see there are some real 2nd team players there , even last year , i suspect they will be to strong , and i see the imports from last year are there?? lol
@GreenBlooded: like i said , thsi team shoudl have been playing in teh top tier against 1st teams, might be the only ones to give Nortwood a Work out ,
bad move to have brought them down to this level
@Greenwood: nasty , well said , lets see if Westville , boycot Northwood Now ?? lol
Beet – Northwood – Really !!
Zn Coach – I think reference or a point about Marne was being made to a School in the Highway area-
@Greenwood: @GreenBlooded: I asked an NW parent about the composition of the Northwood team playing. The feedback was that it contained only about 4 probably 1st XV starting players. So the best may be yet to come.
from what I saw in 10 minutes Northwood looked slick fit and very confident they must have spent a good part of their holidays training – looks like Glenwood at Northwood will be quite a challenge
Check out youtube video Glenwoods 3rd try – search : – you tube Porties nite series 3rd GWD try ” or – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaYXJbCKRHE
great try here – big lad this but deceptively fast only got caught as he went over the line
very impressed with the GWD “Invitation” team setup this was more structured this year and was made up of mostly 2nds , 3rds and some 4th team players I don’t think Porties 2nds knew what hit them
some big guys in the GWD team – look promising for the 2nds this year
I foolishly did not write down the scores of the matches but apart from the Glenwood Inv winning 29-6, Northwood were up 48-0 near the end of their game. It may have ended that way or they possible got another try. Campbell easily beat Port Shepstone 32-7 I think and Porties disposed of Pinetown 32-0. Eeeek. Not accurate but also very one sided games so the scores were academic. There were aspects of the play that were interesting tho.
http://www.northwoodschool.co.za/2013/01/29/northwood-1st-xv-team-building-and-high-performance-camp/
Northwood seem to be taking this rugby thing to a whole new level huh?
Glenwood won 29-6. Some very good prospects there but a heap of handling errors often within 5m €of the line. White line fever? At least another 6 tries went begging due to poor handling. Just some pre-season blues and guys obviously trying to impress as individuals. But I really like what I saw – there are some talented boys there and some VERY hard ball runners.
Only watched the first half of Northwood – a complete mismatch. Some very slick backline running – you can see they have spent long hours on the practice pitch. They will win this tourney by a country mile.
Please keep the scores coming – or if there is a twitter account send that to me. Thanks
24-0 Ft
Glenwood vs Porties next. GW in standard issue jerseys.
GC 12-0 up at HT
Campbell vs Pinetown 2nds now on.
@GreenBlooded:
Interesting actually since Northwood has imported 2 SA U16 props.
I don’t agree with this at all but I think ppeople are more quiet because they aren’t already a good rugby school. If they were then we would be complaining.
You knopw what I mean?
@ Greenblooded, as far as I was aware NW had no issue playing GW last year with Marne or any other import, I may be wrong.
Good luck to the GW boys playing tonight, its going to a great afternoon of rugby.
@Greenwood: That only happens when Glenwood are invovled – not other schools. Northwood supporters were highly critical of our imports – now they are doing the same thing. The difference between then and now is that they stumbled upon a nice bit of moolah to throw around……….
Wonder if any schools will be making an issue about these NW “imports” – are NW not on some thin ice here ? this blogs’ been very quite about this what I am sure about is that GW would still play Northwood even if they had 3 Marne’ size imports in their lineup
@GreenBlooded:both 2nd and 3rds won all their games last year , was debatable whether the 2nds could have actually beaten the 1st team IMHO they could have come close, feedback from a few trail matches that were held , i think I would have , as mentioned before, improved on last year and the use of this tournament for a Glenwood Perspective
@All Black:
I too have the same fear. But let’s hope for the best for them hey…
I fear a team that is made up of many imports is going to battle to play for each other. Just a thought. Who is behind all the money at Northwood? Is it sustainable? Is it a once off? Not that it has anything to do with me but all this change is quite interesting.
With their new imports, Northwood should be hot favourites to take the tourney by a country mile – they are the only Tier 1 school with a 1st XV in attendance and are using a 30 man squad. How can they lose?
Glenwood appear to use this tourney as a ‘trials’ session for their 2nd XV affording them the opportunity to look at a host of players down to 4/5th team level – therefore getting those selections right as well. This paid off handsomely last season with the 2nds going through unbeaten (?? – Green Hopper is this correct) and them knowing where the depth lay in various positions in the lower teams. Good policy if you ask me.
As for a combined school team at Wildeklawer – I don’t know that a cobbled-together team like that will cut the mustard against the country’s best. Won’t be good enterrtainment value IMHO.
@Green Hopper: No unfortunately not.
any teams or squads?