The 133rd meeting between Glenwood and DHS, saw hosts Glenwood winning 38-13, meaning they improve to 54 wins versus DHS’s 68, with 11 draws since the first game in 1922.
During this match, DHS did ever so well to keep the score at 0-0 for the first 33 minutes but after that the floodgates opened and Glenwood scored 6 tries in 29 minutes before DHS got a consolation try.
The first half produced only 7 points but it was action-packed. A common theme played out in the half. Glenwood would apply attacking pressure, get into the DHS redzone, look like they were about to score from the next phase of play and then DHS would produce a “get out of jail card.” It was all credit to the DHS defence at that state, as the visitors refused to lie down and showed a lot of spirit.
DHS was stuck between a rock and a hard place though. For a start, their own lineout game was under immense pressure, meaning that attacking possession was hard to come by. Territorially they were pressed back and reluctant to attack Glenwood from deep with ball in hand. One of their defensive tactics appeared to revolve around kicking the ball up-field rather than out, possibly in order to prevent Glenwood from gaining a setpiece platform to launch a new attack.
However no matter how good these tactical kicks were, they inevitably resulted in the talented Glenwood fullback Morné Joubert, who was the player of the match, getting numerous opportunities to counter-attack with ball in hand. Joubert experienced another nightmare from the kicking tee but as a player carrying the ball up from the back, there are few players as skilful as he is in the country this year. Also standing out for their attacking contributions in the first half were Glenwood left wing Philani Ngcobo, who is going to make a strong claim for Craven Week selection in the weeks to come and underrated openside flank James Venter who seems to be able to get himself into the right place at the right and become more and more prominent as an attacking player as the season goes on.
Glenwood’s opening try came in 34th minute. Philani Ngcobo fielded a highball kick out of danger and brought it back. Soon the ball was in the hands of the dangerous line-breaking Sparks Ngcobo, who has been a revelation at outside centre this season. He got through a hole as he so often does and for the first time in the match, the DHS last line of defence failed as Sparks bounced off the would-be tackler and ran in for a try, making it 7-0 at the break, with inside centre Donny du Randt taking over the kicking duties.
4 minutes into the second half, DHS once again did not find touch with a relieving kick. Soon afterwards, Donny du Randt had the chance to exhibit the invaluable explosiveness he has by getting around his midfield marker with ease and then racing in for the try, making it 12-0.
Glenwood’s fitness and upperbody strength proved to be important as their pack took control from here on out.
In the 49th minute, Venter broke through a lineout. The ball went left from there and from a ruck near the DHS line a pick and drive resulted in a try for hooker Percy Mngadi, converted by Du Randt to make it 19-0.
In the 54th minute Glenwood set a lineout out from a penalty and from it, Venter broke on the blindside. Good carries and quickball resulted in plenty of attacking room on the openside and allowed Sparks to get in for his second try to grow the lead to 24-0.
A minute later Glenwood were pinged for crossing inside their own 22m area and DHS flyhalf Le Roux van Zyl opened their scoring with a penalty, 24-3.
In the 58rd minute, Glenwood blindside flank Mac Muller broke the line with a powerful carry after Glenwood had run the ball. Mac could have gone all the way for an outstanding individual effort but chose to unselfishly offload to his scrummy Kwazi Khanyile near the tryline. With Donny’s kick it was 31-3.
Three minutes late another Le Roux van Zyl penalty made it 31-6.
Glenwood’s final try came in the 62nd minute. Prop Kenny van Niekerk was instrumental in effecting a turnover near the DHS 22m line and as a result his frontrow mate Koos Tredoux had space in front of him. The tighthead backed himself and carried the ball all the way in for a converted try, leaving it at 38-6.
DHS perseverance earned them a late try. From a tap penalty near the tryline, the ball was offloaded and School forced their way over.
Glenwood’s fitness and the upperbody strength gained as a result of their conditioning program proved to be important as their pack took control.
It was once again an outstanding day as far as traditions were concerned. DHS and Glenwood schoolboy supporters set the bar very high with the effort they put into their warcries.
Teams:
| GLENWOOD | DHS | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenny Van Niekerk | 1 | B Xoshombe |
| 2 | Percy Mngadi | 2 | A Febana |
| 3 | Koos Tredoux | 3 | L Hlongwana |
| 4 | Kevin du Randt | 4 | L Whitfield |
| 5 | R Desmore | 5 | N Ndlovu |
| 6 | James Venter | 6 | D Roberts |
| 7 | Macmillan Muller | 7 | P Rees |
| 8 | Jaco Coetzee | 8 | S Ntuli |
| 9 | Kwazi Khanyile | 9 | K Ngidi |
| 10 | Curtis Jonas | 10 | LR van Zyl |
| 11 | Philani Ngcobo | 11 | S Khumalo |
| 12 | Ruben Fouche | 12 | B Buthelezi |
| 13 | Spam Ncgobo | 13 | M Peter |
| 14 | Ilungi Mukendi | 14 | N Mabaso |
| 15 | Morne Joubert | 15 | D Bryan |
@Playa: Could be……who knows. Glenwood 2nd’s have been outstanding in the past few years with some great scalps. Either a case of the best players being kept down or now other 2nd teams have caught up, I have a feeling it’s the former as the coaching structure has changed and the results look a little better..
@Grasshopper: Or a case of other schools’ 2nd XVs catching up?
@beet: I’m afraid to say that certain Glenwood coaches seem to be setting the bar when it comes to abuse of match officials and regrettably it seems to start at the top and filter down. Enough said!!
The first team ref should be familiar to most of us – he has been a Super 15 and Currie Cup AR for a few years. He has had massive success in his own right as a Premier Division referee and how he did not make it further I will never know. Perhaps his quiet and humble demeanor counted against him in a highly competitive environment where cut-throat is the way of it but I will tell you that a more principled, humble and helpful gentleman you will battle to find. No 31 indeed!!
I don’t think it was him himself that refused appointments at Glenwood – but the erstwhile referees society committees have had a policy of not appointing 1st team matches to people who have ties to the school. Thankfully this has changed – due to the efforts of Steve La Marque and others – where a top referee is not wasted due to him having to be at school on a Saturday and only being able to ref 3rd team and below.
@flyparent: Good points, but the Glenwood 2nd team is certainly weaker than previous years. The 1st team would easily beat the 2nd’s, that was not the case in the previous 3 to 4 years. The Glenwood 2nd’s barely lost a game for 3 years. This could indicate that these boys should have been 1st’s as the 1st team has not had the greatest record in the past 3 seasons……..bias, who knows. Glad that DHS can now put out 2 competitive teams in the Opens and A teams down the age groups, a step in the right direction. Now you just need to get your basketball boys playing rugby..
@Grasshopper: This team has not only performed well against an alleged “weaker” Glenwood side. They have performed well in all games and only lost to a very strong Westville 2nd XV because they gave away too many penalties. They had them very worried as well. I think you are confusing the strong U16A side from 2012 with the one from last year. Definitely not strong in 2013. There are several boys in the 2nd XV who IMHO could easily be starting for the 1sts. A very well coached hard working and talented group of rugby players who deserve credit for playing so well.
@beet: Watched 1st and 2nd XV games and both refs had very good games. Both very enjoyable games to watch especially the very close 2nd XV.
@umbiloburger: It’s not easy for a ref out and the u15A game was testimony to this.
If school officials can’t respect the ref, I don’t know how they can expect others to.
I think the happy ending to this story would be to hear that the ref gets help to improve in the areas he had difficulty with, most notably the breakdown where many of the 1st half penalties seemed to stem from and it might have been that possible truck and trailer that caused the dispute in the 2nd half.
I understand that the 1st team ref is not keen to officiate Glenwood games because of his close connection to the school but he is a good ref and I don’t think DHS supporters had any reason to view him as anything but neutral based on his performance.
@HORSEFLY NO.1: People, or rather some coaches, are placing way to much hype in these U15A matches. These guys are still kids and they really don’t need the coaches making requests for Society AR’s etc. i agree with a remark by a Glenwood coach that their Junior teams were way better than the flies in skill and conditioning and their execution was solid. I guess that comes from playing at WK and at top festivals. The flies were lucky that GW u15’s conceded 19 penalties in the 1st half. However the flies did play hard and made the day special.
I really feel that mention must be made of the 1st team referee. He was outstanding. Definitely the 31st player on the field.
@Vleis:
Yes there have been some disruptions. Do well to remember that their best player (who scored about 32 tries in parktown from what I heard) passed away last year. Also, one of their influential players went to westville whilst their captain can’t plat rugby anymore due to an injury so they haven’t been the most lucky team around.
@Grasshopper:
I don’t know hey. It looked to me as if there were more matrics in that Glenwood side. As far as the DHS team goes, there are only 2 boys from last year’s u16A, one of which is flyhalf Matt Noot who I believe will have a great season next year.
@Dixon’s:
yes that game was indeed strange. it was also very close till that incident happened so I was disappointed with the team.. I believe that the score was 15-12 at that stage.
@HORSEFLY NO.1: that 15a game was a strange game…. both coaches where upset with the ref, I feel sorry for the oke. After one try the DHS coach marched onto the field to confront the ref and had a full go at him he had to be pulled of the field by other adults, but that was an isolated incident. As others have mentioned it was a full day played in good spirit, long may this great rivalry continue!
@HORSEFLY NO.1: Yep and the Glenwood 2nd’s are nowhere near as strong as they were last year, they in for a hiding against Grey Cherries and Affies. I reckon it’s the weaker Under16 group we had last year and your stronger 16 group last year…..hopefully it’s just a blip this year and balance will be restored next year..
@HORSEFLY NO.1: Hello Horsey. What’s happened to the all-conquering DHS u14A team of 2012? Their most recent results were:
– a very narrow home victory over the touring Parktown u16A team; and
– a 36 to 10 loss v Glenwood u16A.
What gives? I presume that some of the players have been poached?
Also, the U15A game was alot more closer than the score suggests… the new Glenwood acquisitions certainly had quite the physical presence.
@Grasshopper:
DHS has a more than capable 2nd team this year. They were unlucky to lose with one or two crucial hamdling errors 5m from the tryline possibly costing them the win.
@Dixon’s: yeah, we would get parity quicker then! However these winning streaks go in cycles. If DHS can hang onto their top players and get depth they will start to be competitive again…who knows….they aiming at 2016 for their next win….
@RUGBYMAD: I cannot speak about last year but the kicks that he took on Saturday looked pretty good to me. Its easy to say he was lucky, but perhaps he has been putting in some hard practice to get it right. Sometimes you make your own luck by persevering. Unfortunately I did not get to see much of the U15A game.
@Grasshopper: pity Glenwood dont play the Horseflies twice a year like it used to be!
@Grasshopper: At least we are heading in the right direction!
@Grasshopper: The 2nd team game was very interesting. DHS made a super contest of it. I think their no.8 who took good ball in the lineouts, an aspect of the game that all other DHS teams seem to struggle with, was possibly the DHS player of the day. Just being able to secure setpiece ball is so vital. Even if you lose just 4 lineouts on attack, it could have a significant impact on the outcome of a match.
Believe it or not DHS actually had a chance to win the 2nd team game late on but missed a penalty which would have handed them a 12-10 victory.
@Tigger: Thanks Tigger. Ja its a pity about Morne’s kicks because he really looked like he was on track at KERF, where he was striking the ball very well. But in the end I’m just happy for him that he can stay focused enough to produce a broken play performance of the quality he delivered.
@Tigger: I am sorry Donny is a create rugby player but not a create coal kicker he was lucky on the day I watched him play every game last year and his goal kicking is below average. Lets talk about the under 15a game, I dont now where that ref came from but 19 penalties in the first half agains Glenwood. Then at halftime a talk to the ref , and every thing was better , don’t understand.
@Tigger: Even if we win every year for the next 14 years we will only have parity with School in 2028….eish!!!
Good write up by Beet. I agree our kicking was a concern, but Donny Du Randt kicked some good kicks when he took over so I am hopeful there. All credit to DHS they never gave up and although the score was high at the end it did not reflect their passion. The game was played in great spirit so well done to both teams for an entertaining match. Despite a negative comment earlier in the week by another blogger, it was a privelage to host DHS again and we look forward to continuing the rivalry at the ‘other place’ next year. In relation to the rivalry with DHS we got off to a slow start and, despite some good runs between 1977 and 1983 and the last few years we still need to do some catching up. VIVA the GREEN MACHINE – SCHOOL rivalry!
@Dixon’s: Agreed, some say we lost to Outeniqua at Wildeklawer due to 5 missed kicks, although missed kicks too. Imagine Fred Zeilanga in this side. Jonas is a great runner so nothing against him. We also missed about 4 against Westville in the beginning of the year…….
any suitably qualified old boy out there who knows how to kick for poles? Please contact the coaching staff at Glenwood and volunteer your services because it is obvious to me that the coaches have no clue how to sort out the terrible goal kicking!!!
Thankfully DHS where not that strong and the missed kicks didnt hurt the Green Machine…. but the day is coming when it does!
DHS played manfully and bootled up Jaco Coetzee very well, he had a quite game due to the DHS loosies being all over him! But that freed up James Venter to have another great game. I would like to see Jonas running a bit more as opposed to passing him to Spam and letting him be creative force in the backline. If your flyhalf dominates the game more often than not you will win!
I heard the game was played in great spirit with awesome warcries and the usual traditions, great to hear. Looking at the results DHS didn’t win a game and the A team close results didn’t materialise….http://www.glenwoodhighschool.co.za/sites/default/files/SPORT%20RESULTS%20copy.jpg
What is concerning for Glenwood is the closeness of the 2nd team result, our 2nd’s have lost their aura. Maybe a weaker Under16 group coming through from last year. 2015 could be a tough year with only 1 returning from the 1st team. So far 10 played and 8 won, very happy with that! Banana skins George Campbell and Northwood still to come and College on Old Boys Day on the 24th of May. Go Green!