Second half fightback lifts DHS to victory over Northwood
Durban High School (DHS) was forced to come from behind, down 0-12 at halftime, to beat a committed Northwood School 22-19 in front of a packed crowd on Van Heerden’s Field, in Durban, on Saturday. It was a fascinating battle between two outstanding teams.
The first half was one of frustration for the home side. Unforced errors abounded, while the Knights, with their hard-hitting defence and up-for-it forward pack were also able to create errors from School and force some turnovers to boot.
DHS is a physical outfit. That’s one of their calling cards. Unless an opposing team fights fire with fire, they’re in for a long day, but Northwood brought the fire to a big battle up front. The Horseflies had the edge in the set scrums, but not enough to significantly impact the game. Scrumhalf Jed Mun-Gavin did a good job of feeding the visiting backline.
Coach Jacques Deen declared himself especially happy with Northwood’s mauling, and it was the maul that brought them the opening points of the game in the 13th minute when, from a maul inside the DHS 22, the drive splintered and three players broke clear. The last defender made a tackle, but with two men in support all that was needed was a simple pop-pass, and the visitors were over for a try.
The scoreboard remained static until, with time almost up in the first half, Northwood had a lineout just over five metres out, on the left-hand touchline. An accurate throw to the front of the lineout was quickly shifted to a pod near the back of the lineout. As the DHS defenders shifted their focus, 8th-man, Jamie Wimble, ran a sharp line, cutting against the grain, and took a short pop-pass. He crashed through one tackle and was over the line for another five-pointer. Trevor van Volenstee added the extras.
DHS needed to score early in the second stanza if they were going to claw their way back into the contest. Their response was predictably furious.
Early on, under pressure, in their 22, Northwood conceded a penalty and DHS kicked into the left-hand corner, setting up a lineout. The Horseflies executed it well and powered their way over for their first points of the contest, courtesy of hooker Okuhle Mbanjwa.
It didn’t take long for DHS to score again, and this time it came from their skipper, Daniel Ikotela, with the industrious flank racing over for a five-pointer.
When a grubber from scrumhalf Jaydon Roberts was bobbled by the Northwood defence, Ikotela toed the ball ahead and it sat up invitingly for him. Just outside the visitors’ 22, he snatched it out of the air, then stepped off his right foot and handed off Savio Stevens. He was over 10 metres to the left of the uprights, and when Jordan van Wyk nailed the conversion it was all-square at 12-12.
In the 64th minute, DHS took the lead for the first time when Van Wyk knocked over a penalty from just inside the Northwood 22. It was a lead, but hardly a comfortable one.
Then, under pressure, the Knights botched a lineout near their try line, which forced them to dot down and concede a five-metre scrum.
DHS fed their powerhouse centre, Zingce Simka, but two Northwood tacklers quickly wrapped him up. School, then, executed three pick-and-goes in front of the visitors’ uprights before releasing it to the left. There was Simka again, and he charged over to add another try to his healthy season’s tally.
Van Wyk enhanced the total by two points, and the tide had turned with DHS 22-12 to the good. Northwood, though, is a never-say-die outfit and they had the last say in the match.
With time almost up, they launched a quick attack from a penalty, up to the DHS 22. Then, a flowing backline move created space on the left touchline and, after outflanking the covering defenders, they were in for a third try, scored beneath the posts.
The conversion was a formality, but the contest was over and DHS had scored a hard-fought 22-19 victory.
As the players shook hands and shared hugs, the mutual respect they shared was a heartwarming and pleasing end to a fantastic battle. Northwood’s Jacques Deen commented: “With Peter [Engledow] and [DHS forwards’ coach] Ronnie [Uys] and their boys and our boys, there is big respect. They’re two terrific schools, two rugby schools. That respect is earned.”
“What a game! We were out of it,” DHS coach Peter Engledow told SuperSport Schools Plus afterwards.
“It’s just one of those days. We’ve come off a hard Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival, and we’re straight back into school, the same as Northwood. It was a tough week with the rain. We haven’t trained. Conditions are tough, as well.
“I’m delighted with the character. We had some hard words at halftime. To come back and score the points that we did, and to win the game was amazing. It was 22-19. We should have kept it at 22-12. But what a comeback by the boys. Really good character!”
Northwood’s Jacques Deen was proud of his side’s effort: “I think there were moments when we were truly outstanding. We stuck to what we did, and it worked.
“Our mauling was exceptional again, but we missed one or two lineouts after that. When we played to the edges, we were dangerous. We scored in that moment [at the end of the game] there.”
The margins between victory and defeat were slim, but DHS edged it. In 2024, the sides drew 7-7 at Northwood. Then, at DHS, the home team scored an 18-11 victory. This time, there were only two points in it.
“It’s small moments, small margins, and these boys need to get to a level that they can believe they can do it,” Deen reflected.
“I think there were a lot of positives, but I said to the boys now, ‘What’s done is done. We get another opportunity in the third term to play them again. Did people think we were able to do it? No. I think this team still has the ability to be one of the top teams.”
Two massive tests lie ahead of DHS in the coming week. They face Stellenberg and Paarl Gimnasium – lest anyone needs a reminder, very impressive winners by 43-31 over Grey College in Bloemfontein on Saturday – at the Absa Wildeklawer Rugby Festival in Kimberley, on 1 May and 3 May respectively.
Engledow commented with a smile: “I said at halftime, we’re staring at 100-0 against Gim if we’re going to do that! Before we get to Gim, though, we’ve got to get through Stellenberg, who are a very well-coached team. There are a lot of good people involved at Stellenberg. I have a lot of respect for them.”
SCORES
u19 – DHS I 22 Northwood I 19; DHS II 12 Northwood II 7; DHS III 22 Northwood III 12; DHS IV 29 Northwood IV 10; DHS V 0 Northwood V 14; DHS VI 10 Northwood VI 11
u16 – DHS A 24 Northwood A 14; DHS B 8 Northwood B 10
u15 – DHS A 38 Northwood A 3; DHS B 45 Northwood B 7; DHS C 19 Northwood C 14
u14 – DHS A 22 Northwood A 5; DHS B 50 Northwood B 0; DHS C 44 Northwood 7
