Durbies breeze past Dale College, Lodewyk leads Milnerton to victory

In the opening game of the 2025 Standard Bank Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival, Milnerton’s power play boosted them to a 34-18 win over the touring Peterhouse, from Zimbabwe.

The Western Cape side dominated the opening exchanges, thanks largely to their abrasive attacking play, and they scored the first points of the festival via a Morgan Lodewyk penalty.

Milnerton was relentless on both sides of the ball and extended their lead when the big midfielder barged over for the opening try. He also converted it, to go with his earlier penalty.

Those early setbacks seemed to jolt Peterhouse to life, and they responded with a prolonged period of possession in the Milnerton half, which eventually brought them three points from the boot of Andrew Maringa.

The Zimbabweans continued to struggle with Milnerton’s physicality at the contact point, though, and Prosper Zimbango was shown yellow after a series of repeated team infringements because of that pressure.

However, with time up at the end of the half, and against the run of play, Peterhouse second rower Mufaro Mawoyo broke through the Milnerton defensive line to reduce the deficit to 8-10 at the break.

The boys in white started the second half brightly, with another Maringa penalty edging them ahead, but lapses in concentration on defence allowed Lodewyk to score his second try, before Nicholas Young, on as a substitute, crucially added a third try soon thereafter.

It was a long way back from there for the tourists, and further tries from Kgaugelo Mokgobu and a brilliant individual effort from Akho Mkaya effectively ended the match as a contest.

When Peterhouse hit back through a converted Michael Marimo try, it was too little, too late.

In the second game of the first day, Hoërskool Durbanville breezed past Dale College, romping to a 66-22 win, thanks to some devastating attacking play.

The Eastern Cape outfit was unable to cope with Durbanville’s superior structure on both sides of the ball, with the boys in yellow and blue stripes crossing for 10 tries.

The Dalians enjoyed the lion’s share of territory in the first quarter and broke the deadlock 10 minutes into the contest when hooker Lakhanya Mbewu burst over from close range. They failed to add to that 5-0 lead during that period, though, and were made to rue that moments later.

During their first real spell of possession inside the Dale red zone, a brutally efficient driving maul resulted in a penalty try for the Western Cape school, with Liyabona Mayikana being shown a yellow card for a cynical collapse.

Durbanville, then, made the most of their numerical advantage and scored quick-fire tries through Jeandré Ungerer and Tiaan Kearns to shoot out to a 21-5 lead at halftime.

It didn’t take for Durbies to open their second-half account, with Muller Jansen van Rensburg going over, thanks to another unstoppable rolling maul. Xander Muller added another try minutes later, before his teammate Eli Pedro saw yellow for a breakdown offence on their try line.

Dale fullback Phikolomzi Mtyalela then managed to weave his way over for their second, but further Durbanville tries from Louwrens Rademeyer, Cole Carls, Juan Smit, Muller, and Milani Madide pushed out the lead even further.

Dale mustered an additional penalty try, as well as another five-pointer from loose forward Owethu Siswana, but they couldn’t consistently hold their own for the full 60 minutes.

SCORERS

Hoërskool Durbanville 66 (21) – Tries: Xander Muller (2), Jeandré Ungerer, Tiaan Kearns, Muller Janse van Vuuren, Louwrens Rademeyer, Cole Carls, Jaun Smit, Milani Madide, Penalty Try. Conversions: De Wet Viljoen (8). Dale College 22 (5) – Tries: Lakhanya Mbewu, Phikolomzi Mtyalela, Owethu Siswana, Penalty Try.

Milnerton 34 (10) – Tries: Morgan Lodewyk (2), Nicholas Young, Kgaugelo Mokgobu, Akho Mkaya. Conversions: Mkaya (2), Lodewyk. Penalty: Lodewyk. Peterhouse 18 (8) – Tries: Mufaro Mawoyo, Michael Marimo. Conversion: James Watt. Penalties: Andrew Maringa (2).