20 March 2023
Stott Field presented one of the best and most inviting canvasses to be found anywhere in South Africa for the start of the winter sports season on Saturday, 18 March, and a derby showdown between Kearsney College and Clifton.
The boys from Durban, having recorded a first ever 1st XV win over Kearsney in 2022, were eager to prove that was no fluke. Kearsney, for their part, wanted to ensure that their visitors from Durban were not about to start a trend.
Strong travelling support
Before getting into the match, kudos to Clifton, they travel well. They don’t have boarders – yet – but having a school loaded with day scholars doesn’t guarantee support. Thus, their parents deserve a round of applause for the consistently excellent backing they provide their sons around KwaZulu-Natal. It meant Stott Field was packed on all sides, with Kearsney, well supported too, proving to be magnanimous hosts.
As the players ran onto the field, the anticipation of an exhilarating contest ballooned. Running through a long line of supporters, with red, black and white smoke announcing their arrival, Clifton’s 1st XV appeared focussed. Kearsney, in contrast, seemed more buoyant, with a number of their players leaping high in the air and letting out whoops of excitement as they reached the soft, green surface.
From the kick off, it was Kearsney who surged onto the attack, forcing Clifton deep into their half. Pinning the visitors in their 22, Devahn van der Walt’s side forced a number of penalties out of the desperate defenders.
The Clifton pack was also having some issues in the early going in the set scrums; the field took some getting used to. The playing surface was fantastic, soft and lush, but not too heavy. However, under foot, it was a little too soft in places when faced with two packs exerting pressure upon one another, and that meant some adjustments were necessary at scrum time. As the match progressed, Clifton adjusted, and the set piece contest became more of stalemate.
Presented with some early penalties, Kearsney signalled their intent to take the game to Clifton by spurning a number of dead-easy attempts at goal in favour of tap-and-go penalties, hitting the ball up hard at the Clifton try-line in search of a breakthrough five-pointer.
Rewarded
Eventually, after eight minutes of relentless pressure, Kearsney were rewarded for their decision to pursue a try instead of the easier option of a penalty kick.
Their try-scoring sequence began on the left of the Clifton defence. Driving the ball up time after time, with Clifton defending stubbornly, the action moved towards the middle of the field, where Kearsney were finally able to shift it quickly from a ruck, and out to the right where right wing Joe Verbaan was able to make use of the overlap to sprint for the line and dive over in the corner.
Chad Croshaw struck an excellent conversion from tight up against the sideline, the ball neatly bisecting the uprights, with just enough on it to make it 7-0 in favour of the home side.
Having conceded a try, Clifton were able to make their way into Kearsney’s territory through the kick off. Pressure relieved, it presented an opportunity for the visitors to exert themselves on their hosts, but about three minutes later they found themselves behind their try-line again after giving up a second try.
Second try
Kearsney were on the defensive, between their halfway and 22-metre lines, with Clifton forcing the pace. But things can change in a flash in rugby. On this occasion that flash was named left wing Junior Dlamini. After claiming a Clifton kick out of the air, he suddenly, found an open field in front of him.
He didn’t need an invitation and sprinted down the left flank, a grin breaking onto his face as he realised no one was going to catch him. He went over about 10 metres in front the touchline.
Croshaw was, again, on target from the kicking tee and Kearsney had opened up a 14-0 lead. That remained the score at the break.
Prior to Saturday’s match, Kearsney had played two games, winning comfortably against Voortrekker Bethlehem and Hentie Cilliers, while Clifton had overpowered Richards Bay High 73-0 the previous weekend. Maybe that easy win didn’t serve Clifton well because Michael Langston and his team struggled for momentum against the harassing Kearsney defence, which was a solid 15-man effort, throughout the first half.
They were better in the second half, coming into the contest more, and setting Kearsney on the back foot at times, but some early season rust remained evident.
Something else, though, that affected both teams negatively was an unnecessary amount of niggle – little pushes and shoves after the whistle that led to retaliation and took the players’ focus away from the game. Yes, both teams wanted to win, but that niggle detracted from the players’ performance and, eventually, late in the game it cost Kearsney a yellow card.
Final points
The final points of the contest belonged to Kearsney, who manufactured another try, well into the second stanza, this time with a well-executed training ground move. From a set scrum on the left, the ball went from scrumhalf Croshaw to flyhalf Roydan Madatt, who expertly popped up a soft pass into the space between Madatt and his inside centre for Junior Dlamini to run onto.
He hit the ball at pace, right between the Clifton defenders and raced through to score to the right of the uprights and put Kearsney 19-0 ahead. Inexplicably, given his fine conversions earlier in the match, Croshaw missed the easiest of them.
As the game wound towards its conclusion, Clifton fought their way towards the Kearsney try-line, putting the hosts under huge pressure. Kearsney, though, held firm.
Twice, Clifton looked as if they were about to cross for tries, but Kearsney’s terrier-like defence and a couple of knock-ons with the try-line beckoning robbed the Durbanites of points.
Something for both teams to take away
When the final whistle rang out, Kearsney had avenged their loss of the previous season, but Clifton, even in defeat, had proven that their win of 2022 was no fluke result. Theirs is a good 1st XV.
Just how Clifton stacks up to the rest of the top KZN schools this season remains to be seen, but rugby at Clifton is, most certainly, ascending. Kearsney, it appears, after a down season in 2022, is back to the kind of consistent form one expects from the boys from Botha’s Hill.
Importantly, too, Kearsney added three tries to their Tries for Lives fund-raising campaign for the Ethelbert Child and Youth Care Centre.
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