Whiting credits defence for Reddam House Constantia’s successes
After an outstanding victory in the St Anne’s Water Polo Tournament earlier in the week, Reddam House Constantia coach Connor Whiting has credited his team’s defensive work for their title-winning performance.
Fresh off of winning the MacKenzie Cup in the own pool, Reddam Constantia joined 19 other top water polo-playing schools at St Anne’s, where icy conditions made the first two days of the four-day event especially challenging.
In pool play, up against St Mary’s DSG Kloof, Westville Girls’ High, Rhenish, and St Mary’s Waverley, Whiting‘s side dominated. They won all of their pool games to easily secure their place in the playoffs.
“We just got better as the tournament progressed. We were going from strength to strength,” Whiting said. “The whole focus on the weekend, on each game, was on defence, which I think was the main reason for our success,” he told SuperSport Schools Plus.
The Western Cape side opened their assignments as one of the favourites and they quickly lived up to that tag, powering their way to an impressive 13-1 win over St Mary’s DSG Kloof in their first game. In a tighter second contest, they ran out comfortable 6-1 winners over Rhenish.
St Mary’s Waverley put up a good fight, but Reddam claimed a 6-4 victory. It was one-way traffic against Westville Girls’ High School, with the Cape girls cruising to a 17-0 win.
In the playoffs, they dealt with the St Anne’s junior team, the Stingrays, who performed admirably against senior opposition, winning 9-2. Then, against Herschel, the team they had faced in the final of the MacKenzie Cup, they won 8-3.
“Conceding a handful of goals, or just over a handful of goals, all weekend, was the key to our success,” Whiting said, “and then the goal for the final was to be patient and control the game on defence, which I think we did well, stopping them from scoring goals.”
Up against St Anne’s for the title, Reddam House Constantia recorded an emphatic 10-2 victory.
“On our attack, it is structured. It’s quite hard for teams to defend us and break us down from a defence perspective, so the goal was to be as patient as possible and wait for opportunities to score, and I think we did that really well, especially in the first half of the game. From then, the goal was to control the momentum throughout the final.” Whiting explained. “Also, with two very strong goalkeepers, it suits our defence, and the overall team effort worked well for us.
“We have been working with the first team girls and u16 girls, Nick Tinkler and I, and we have structured our defence and worked on it for the last two years, and it is showing success now.”
ST ANNE’S WATER POLO TOURNAMENT TOP 10
1 Reddam House Constantia
2 St Anne’s Diocesan College
3 Roedean School
4 Herschel Girls School
5 St Stithians Girls’ College
6 Rhenish High School
7 Durban Girls’ College
8 St Anne’s Stingrays
9 Reddam House Bedfordview
10 St Dominic’s Catholic School for Girls
