First-half blitz sets up Grey High School victory
Grey High blitzed Durban High School with five first-half tries, while Selborne snatched victory at the death as the Standard Bank Grey High Rugby Festival drew to an exciting conclusion on the Philip field in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
The hosts maintained their proud record at their festival with a 33-14 result, but full credit must go to DHS for the way they came back in the second half by scoring two tries while limiting their opponents to no points.
However, the fightback of the day belonged to Selborne, who scored an equalising try on the hooter in their clash with Durban school Northwood.
That made it 26-26 and centre Warrick Day then stepped up to the plate to nail the conversion, bringing a happy end to the festival for the East London side after they had lost in similar circumstances to Jeppe on Thursday.
In a match full of action, Northwood fought back courageously from 14-0 down to grab the lead with less than five minutes remaining.
A kick ahead by Selborne was not followed up properly and this allowed the Durban lads to launch an attack from within their own 22-metre area, Willett Ntsinga being the final recipient to race nearly 50 metres for a try under the poles.
That made it 26-21, but Northwood then fiddled too much around the ruck area as they tried to close out the game. Selborne forced a turnover, received a penalty and kicked for the corner near their opponents’ line.
The ensuing drive saw Jarrod Taylor bash his way over for the try which brought the scores level and Day did the rest to snatch a 28-26 win.
With the south-easterly at their backs, Grey dominated the opening period against DHS from the moment flyhalf Matthew Easton split the defence in the sixth minute to race over for a try under the poles.
Further tries came from Nathan Doster, Siviwe Zondani and Leo Wolf (2), while four conversions by Easton took them out to a telling 33-0 lead at the break.
The home side made too many mistakes in the second half and DHS showed spirit by getting tries through Xhanti Njokweni and Jaydian Cedares, but the leeway was too much to make up.
In the other close result of the day on the Philip field, St Andrew’s came back from 12-3 down to earn a hard-fought 13-12 win over the tough Jeppe outfit.
Kingswood showed what they could do with their second win of the festival, comfortably defeating St John’s 35-8 after conceding an early try and a penalty.
A try by lock PJ Sizani saw them turn around 8-7 down, but they took control in the second half as Duncan Krige, Nick Lawson-Smith, Nigel Tinarawa and Bryce Collins all crossed the whitewash. Collins added five conversions.
In a clash on the Pollock Oval, Brandwag were pushed all the way by St Benedict’s, but won 22-19, while Ithembelihle had the edge over Woodridge 26-12.
The first team results were:
Queen’s College 27 St David’s Marist Inanda 10
Stirling 12 St Stithians 80
Parktown 5 Dale 43
Kingswood 35 St John’s 8
Jeppe 12 St Andrew’s College 13
Selborne 28 Northwood 26
Grey High 33 DHS 14
St Alban’s 22 Muir 0
Brandwag 22 St Benedict’s 19
Graeme 10 Marlow 34
Grey High Unicorns 36 Andrew Rabie 0
Hudson Park 10 Framesby 61
Woodridge 12 Ithembelihle 26
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