After a stern examination, Michaelhouse holds off Westville on Bowden’s
Michaelhouse, coming off a narrow 7-10 defeat to Helpmekaar, made the trip to Westville Boys’ High on Saturday, knowing they would be up against a dangerous opponent on Bowden’s, in front of a jam-packed crowd that created a cauldron-like atmosphere.
In a reversal of the flow of the hockey match between the two 1st teams, it was the Griffin who were controlled in the first half, but then came on strongly in the last quarter.
They had trailed 5-18 at one stage but managed to pull to within a point at 17-18, However, the risks they took to get that close came back to bite them when Michaelhouse forced a turnover and went over in the left-hand corner. A fine conversion in difficult windy conditions by Luke Davidson took it beyond a one-score game and that’s how it remained as ‘House scored a 25-17 victory.
Their defence was the catalyst for two of their three tries, with hard hits and turnovers being turned into points.
In the first half, the visitors looked comfortably in charge before Westville fullback Zekhethelo Siyaya sliced through the Michaelhouse defence when a backline move that appeared to have broken down wasn’t closed down quickly enough. It was one of the few occasions that the boys in red and white gave Westville too much room within which to operate.
Westville was dangerous on attack, Michaelhouse coach James Fleming said. Their fullback, Zekethelo Siyaya, was “lethal”, but he was far from the only dangerman, Fleming added.
For the most part, though, Michaelhouse controlled the game, with flyhalf Davidson playing the conditions well and dictating field position with his boot.
Good tactical kicking by Michaelhouse flyhalf Luke Davidson was a key factor in his side’s victory.Davidson’s control forced Westville to play from deep, and it kept them turning around, which was not how they wanted to play the game. Their coach Njabulo “Jabz” Zulu admitted he was disappointed with his charges’ first outing.
“Very disappointing. We really came in with a plan, and our plan was to try and outwork them. They were a much bigger team, and I thought we had an athletic team.” The problems they experienced were many of those seen early in the season: from teams playing their first games loose passes and dropped balls, but the negative penalty count was truly costly.
“We let them off the hook with silly penalties. That hurt us a lot,” Zulu said.
After their opening loss to Helpmekaar, Fleming said his charges needed to sort out some aspects of their scrum and lineout work. That they had done that clearly showed in their performance on Bowden’s.
Westville, who were without their first-choice locks, gained very little clean ball from the lineouts, where one of Michaelhouse’s unsung heroes, Riley Gehren, caused havoc by contesting every throw-in. He also delivered a big-time defensive performance, making one solid tackle after another.
In the backline, Tom Baguley was equally effective in stopping Westville. Fleming likened him to the former Wales and British Lion bowling ball at centre, Scott Gibbs.
“He was outstanding defensively and took it up when we needed it,” Fleming said.
Alongside Baguley, Rourke O’Sullivan, making his bow in the 1st XV, enjoyed a strong debut.
The tight scrums were probably shaded by Michaelhouse, with tighthead prop, Thomas Peach, adding some heft to the pack.
The loose was a battle throughout. “They were really competitive over the ball. They’re very good at going at the ball, so I was chuffed that we managed to win those balls. A week ago, we would have lost a lot of them,” Fleming reckoned.
For three-quarters of the contest, the visitors looked on course for a comfortable win, but when Westville started to iron out some of their errors, they forced Michaelhouse onto the back foot and an intercept try by Blake Allbon threw the cat among the pigeons.
Another five-pointer by Jeshua Ferreira meant there was only one point in it, but captain Carlyle Hawkins and his crew quickly found a reply to give themselves some breathing room.
Michaelhouse’s ability to keep tacking on points throughout the contest was critical to his team’s success, said Fleming: “Luke Davidson kept the scoreboard ticking, and that’s a big lesson that schoolboys need to learn, like Jonny Wilkinson, three, six, nine, 12. It kept our scoring going, which was very important, so well done to Luke Davidson for that.
Westville coach Jabz Zulu lamented the fact that his team missed some kickable penalties: “We were behind by a point, and we had a kick in front of the poles. We didn’t miss difficult kicks and that was costly.
“We played for maybe 20 percent of the time. We could have been in with a shot.
“That’s also why I am disappointed, because I want to make people proud. I feel like, for a large part of that, we didn’t make people proud.”
There is quality in the Westville lineup. That much is clear. And much like Michaelhouse will feel they let themselves down through unforced errors in their first match, so too will Westville feel they were some way off their best in their opener.
They’ll aim to take a leaf out of the Balgowan boys’ book when they run out against Clifton College in the coming week and show that they’ve effectively addressed some of the areas of play that weren’t up to scratch. If they get it right, Michaelhouse’s James Fleming noted, they have some very dangerous runners.
Scores
Michaelhouse 25 (13): Tries Stefan Moolman, Carlyle Hawkins, Rourke Murray. Penalties: Luke Davidson (x2). Conversions: Luke Davidson (x2). Westville 17 (5) – Tries: Zekhethelo Siyaya, Blake Allbon, Jeshua Ferreira. Conversions: Jadewill Koopman
u16A: Westville 19 Michaelhouse 14
u15A: Michaelhouse 19 Westville 17
u14A: Michaelhouse 17 Westville 10
