Northcliff, Kempton Park start strong at Saints Easter Festival
On Thursday, the opening day of the Saints Easter Rugby Festival hosted by St Stithians College, Northcliff High defended valiantly to keep St Charles College scoreless at half-time with the score at 10-0.
In the second half, they continued to play with a level of physicality which sometimes overwhelmed the Pietermaritzburg locals; thus ending the match with an 18-7 victory.
St Charles put their points on the board midway through the second half. After taking a quick tap after being awarded a penalty in the Northcliff 22-metre area, they then played a couple of phases.
Having come off the bench, the fresh and fiery hooker Braydon Joese, picked up from the base of the ruck and drove his way over the line with two defenders clinging to him.
Only a few phases later, the most impressive try of the match occurred. The Randburg side regathered the ball from kickoff and played a few phases down the blindside, making a handful of metres on each carry.
An offload on the opposition’s five-metre line found its way to blindside flanker Ethan Leonette. Upon receiving the ball, he dived through the air to secure five points.
Flyhalf Reynard Burger set the tone just six minutes into Hoërskool Kempton Park’s 27-15 triumph over Hoërskool Pietersburg.
Standing just left of the posts and about 10 metres from the try-line when he received the ball, he then sold a dummy to his opposite man, followed by an electric zig-zag through two defenders in a space about the size of your average elevator. After falling over for five, he then added his own extras.
His peers, left wing Luca du Plooy and fullback Ethan Botha also scored their tries with some fancy footwork for two similar tries. Both scored in the first 11 minutes of the second half, and about five minutes apart.
Both received the ball out wide on the left and ran out wide before beating the last defender one-on-one to score. The only major differences between their tries were that Botha’s run was for about 45 metres and he beat the defender by cutting in, while Du Plooy ran about 35 metres and beat his man by cutting out.
Pietersburg fought hard with tries from locks Jan-Hendrik Bonneschans and Brent Vorster, however, it simply wasn’t their day against an on-song Kempies team.
Scorers:
Northcliff High 18 (10) – Tries: Dayne Van Wyk, Ethan Leonette. Conversion: Jack Woolard. Penalties: Jack Woolard, Jonothan Haw. St Charles College 7 (0) – Tries: Braydon Joese. Conversions: Njabulo Nala.
Kempton Park 27 (12) – Tries: Reynard Burger, Luca du Plooy, Ethan Botha, Aubrey Hoskin. Conversion: Reynard Burger (2). Penalty: Reynard Burger. Hoërskool Pietersburg 15 (8) – Tries: Jan-Hendrik Bonneschans, Brent Vorster. Conversion: Juan Randall. Penalty: Ryno Mienie.
