Excitement on the cards as DHS hosts Westville
Westville Boys’ High‘s 25-22 victory over Hoërskool Monument on the last day of the Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival (KERF) caught the imagination and has made Saturday’s showdown with Durban High School (DHS) on Van Heerden’s Field even more enticing than it first appeared.
It was a stirring performance by the Griffin against a renowned rugby school, which sported a very large forward pack. But Westville put Monument in reverse in the set scrums on a good number of occasions. That was quite something.
Also, the manner in which they withstood 20 minutes of unrelenting pressure from Monnas at the start of the game, before striking twice for tries from turnovers, just before halftime, was impressive.
Big hits caused those turnovers, and they’ll need to be just as robust on defence against a DHS team that was the most dominant side at KERF.
In their first outing, the Horseflies, coached by former Griquas’ coach Peter Engeldow, took on Nico Malan, coached by Jaco Nepgen who, as a player, led the lineout for Griquas when Engeldow was in charge. The teams shared some plays, which the coaches laughed about afterwards.
Still, DHS exhibited a hard-working, hard-hitting defence, to keep the Humansdorp side off the scoreboard, winning 21-0.
In their second outing, they were too much for Hoërskool Rustenburg, dotting down three times in each half, and a fine kicking performance from Aka Boqwana helped School to a big 45-0 victory.
Pearson High School managed to breech the DHS try line on the last day of the festival, but that was the only time it happened, and DHS ran out 38-7 winners, nonetheless.
Early in the season, their defence was their calling card, but now their attack is hitting its stride and that makes captain Mahle Sithole and co a very difficult challenge.
Westville has shown with each successive match that they’re rounding into ever-improving form, and there is no doubt that they possess runners with the ability to rip any team to shreds.
There are unmissable similarities between the sides when one looks at their tough packs and speedy backlines. Apart from the flash, though, the team that controls the tactical battle and the territory will likely come away with the win.
DHS coach Peter Engeldow identified the balance in his charges’ kicking game and their chase lines as being among the aspects of their performances at Kearsney which had most pleased him, so they appear to be well organised.
Given their strong early season form, and the fact that they’re playing at home, they have to be regarded as the favourites, but Westville have shown that they have the ability to chop down the biggest of opponents.
Without predicting the winning school on Saturday, there’s every chance that a simple prediction will be correct: the winners on Saturday will be the spectators.
TEAMS
DHS: 15 Jordan van Wyk, 14 Hlumelo Madikane, 13 Duncan Basson, 12 Zenkosi Mthiyane, 11 Allston Cedras, 10 Aka Boqwana, 9 Marcwin Nero, 8 Khanyisa Stamper, 7 Bradley le Grange, 6 Daniel Ikotela, 5 Thando Luthuli, 4 Sibusiso Mahlangu, 3 Bongani Dlamini, 2 Mahle Sithole (c), 1 Unaye Mndau
Westville Boys’ High: 15 Jade-Will Koopman, 14 Evan Moolman, 13 Michael Satade, 12 Blake Allbon, 11 Jadrian Afrikaner, 10 Unathi Mlotshwa, 9 Ryan Pistor, 8 David Humphreys, 7 Seth Gwynn, 6 Chris Cloete, 5 Rhys Mitchell, 4 Moustapher Gcina, 3 Bandile Mncwango, 2 Jeshua Ferreira, 1 Akhona Maseko
