Impressive Hilton overruns Kearsney
Beaten at home by Westville Boys’ High in their opener, Hilton College righted their ship in devastating style on Saturday, outplaying Kearsney College 53-10 on Stott Field, in Botha’s Hill.
Although the margin was wide, Kearsney could have kept the contest a lot closer but, on three occasions, were let down by their handling within sight of the Hilton try line.
The visitors, however, showed how it should be done, with some excellent interplay between backs and forwards highlighting their approach. They made a strong start and maintained their momentum throughout the match.
Their points scoring began with an early foray into Kearsney’s 22, which delivered good, clean ball for scrumhalf Zander Vorster. He quickly fed it out to his right, where it was moved briskly through the hands to right-wing Khazimla Makali, after a dummy runner had pulled in the home side’s defence. He raced over in the corner to put his side 5-0 in front.
Then, from a 22m drop-out, a good, high kick gave Hilton’s forwards time to get under the ball and challenge for possession. They won it and drove hard, up to the halfway line. Vorster quickly gave the ball to lock André Boshoff, who drew in defenders with a bullocking run. More good ball went right once more and captain Liyema Nela ripped through the Kearsney defence with a sweet dummy. He drew the last defender and released outside centre Guy Fender, who ran in a fantastic try from 35 metres out.
Nela’s trusty left boot added two more points to the Hilton total.
Coach Brad Mcleod-Henderson‘s boys continued to play the game inside the Kearsney half and they benefitted from that when they pilfered a Kearsney throw-in from just outside the 22. Emmanuel Dankwah received the ball from the ruck, ducked down and powered his way through a tackle to charge away from the defenders and over the line to score beneath the uprights. Nela stuck over the easy conversion and Hilton had Kearsney wobbling.
The One-Stripe, though, at last, got onto the scoreboard with a long-range penalty from Doan Nel, which flew straight and true.
Hilton soon added three points of their own, in reply, when Kearsney was blown up for being offsides. This time, Zander Vorster handled the kicking duties, and he, too, was on target.
The visitors worked their way down deep into Kearsney’s 22 where, with patience, they lent on their forwards to hit the ball up. The home side showed admirable resilience in stopping surge after surge. But, with Hilton maintaining possession, something had to give eventually, and Fender provided the finishing touch to boost the visitors’ tally by five points. Nela tacked on two more to give Hilton a big 29-3 lead at the break.
Nela and company continued their energetic assault in the second stanza. They made good ground into the Kearsney 22 but were nearly caught out when Nela’s cross-kick was charged down. Still, Hilton kept possession. Once again, after good work from the forwards, moving the ball to the right did the trick.
Hooker Josh Grant drove hard at the Kearsney defensive line, sucked in two defenders, and then popped the ball out to Guy Fender. He drew the next defender and released to James Peattie, who pinned his ears back and made it halfway through an outside gap before a little offload to wing Makali put him over for his second five-pointer of the contest.
Playing with excellent precision and structure, Hilton, then, outflanked the One-Stripe on the right again, with good ball movement putting Peattie over for five.
The visitors were full of confidence. Their game plan was working because their execution was outstanding, and it brought them another try, this time from a counterattack that began near their try line.
After making ground up the left touchline, scrumhalf Vorster launched a high kick into Kearsney territory, where a couple of defenders got themselves into a muddle, allowing left-wing Ricky Adonis to scoop up the ball. He was dragged down but passed inside to lock Andrew Schnell, who showed off an impressive turn of pace to speed over for a further try.
This time, Hilton entrusted John Grubb with the kick from wide on the left and he made it count to stretch Hilton’s lead to 46-3.
A missed touch-finder provided Hilton with a further chance to attack. Josh Grant dented the Hilton defences before sending a pass off to the backline and Fender was given space to dive over for his hat-trick. Grubb added the extras.
It had been a miserable day for Kearsney, but they managed the last say in the contest with a fantastic counterattacking try.
When Hilton dropped a pass on halfway, the home team quickly shifted the ball to the left, opening up a three-man overlap. Centre Doan Nel hit the accelerator and sprinted into the Hilton 22. Drawing a tackler, he popped it outside. But, with Hilton’s cover defence roaring in to make the tackle, the ball was fed inside to fullback Bukho Hlwatika and he rounded off to the delight of the home crowd.
Nel slotted the conversion kick and the final whistle sounded with Hilton the winner by a handsome 53-10 margin.
POINTS SCORERS
Hilton College 53 (29) – Tries: Guy Fender (3), Khazimla Makali (2), James Peattie, Andrew Schnell, Emmanuel Dankwah. Conversions: Liyema Nela (3), John Grubb (2). Penalty: Zander Vorster. Kearsney College 10 (3) – Try: Bukho Hlwatika. Conversion: Doan Nel. Penalty: Doan Nel.
RESULTS
u19 – Kearsney I 10 Hilton I 53; Kearsney II 15 Hilton II 37; Kearsney III 8 Hilton III 12; Kearsney IV 0 Hilton IV 27; Kearsney V 5 Hilton V 26; Kearsney VI 22 Hilton VI 25; Kearsney VII 5 Hilton VII 36
u16 – Kearsney A 36 Hilton A 17; Kearsney B 17 Hilton B 18; Kearsney C 36 Hilton C 17; Kearsney D 45 Hilton D 8
u15 – Kearsney A 24 Hilton A 20; Kearsney B 20 Hilton B 27; Kearsney C 0 Hilton C 27
u14 – Kearsney A 14 Hilton A 31; Kearsney B 19 Hilton B 10; Kearsney C 21 Hilton C 7
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