1 April 2023
It took a steward’s inquiry but when the dust had settled on Maritzburg College’s match against Noordheuwel at the North-South festival at Affies in Pretoria, the KZN team had won 47-45.
The Friday game ended with confusion on the scoreboard. The Noordheuwel supporters challenged the 47-45 score, claiming that one of their team’s conversions had not been picked up by the scorers and that the score was in fact, 45-45, but a forensic examination of the scoring ruled 47-45 to be correct.
Maybe it was the disappointment in their team falling away as they did in the second half that caused the dispute. Noordheuvel led 11-0 after ten minutes and 33-19 at half-time.
Second half fight-back
But the second half belonged to College once they kept the ball and applied a more direct approach.
The win for College was much needed after the disappointment of losing 14-7 to DHS, with the game ending controversially and College appearing to have secured a try to draw the match.
College needed this boost because next up is mighty Grey College on Monday. The Bloemfontein team is on fire — they humbled Paarl Gim 33-12 on Friday.
Coach Tim Orchard said he is pleased with his team’s start to the season: “We are settling down into a solid unit. They guys understand the benefits of working hard for each other.
“We have a nice balance of Grade 11s and 12s while our second team is going well and also beat Noordheuwel.”
Underdogs
Orchard said his team is happy to be the underdogs against Grey.
“Of course, they can be beaten. They are a rugby team just like us. We have to concentrate hard on giving them no freebies. We will focus on ourselves and take the field with a never-say-die attitude in the great tradition of games between these two schools.”
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