28 April 2023
KwaZulu-Natal has one representative at the 2023 Grey High School Rugby Festival, Westville Boys’ High. On Thursday, they made a winning start to the event, defeating a stubborn Voortrekker Bethlehem team 28-5.
Festival successes
The current Westville 1st team seems to enjoy festivals, based on their results this year. They were one of three unbeaten sides at the Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival, brought to you by Standard Bank, beating Noord-Kaap 31-19, Hartpury College 14-9, and Dr EG Jansen 22-10.
More recently, the Griffin went down 20-24 to a very good DHS team and beat Kearsney College 34-29 this past weekend. Now, back in festival action, they won comfortably again.
Westville, Glenwood day one winners at KERF
https://www.pinnacle-schools.com/2023/04/06/rugby-kerf/
In Gqeberha, on Thursday, from the very first set scrum, it became clear that Westville held a significant advantage up front over their opponents from the Free State. It was, however, a stuttering start as the Griffin adjusted to strong winds.
“We were all over them,” Westville coach Njabulo “Jabz ” Zulu said of the scrums. [Prop] Jeshua [Ferreira] was coming back from a concussion. He played the first game against Noord-Kaap. He didn’t play the last two games. We felt that we were dominant, but we didn’t get enough reward. The ref gave us only two penalties.”
With only a couple of minutes played, Voortrekker benefitted from a Westville knock-on when, after a clean line-break, they quickly recycled ball and a double-skip pass found the fullback, Nkumane, who dived over in the corner to give his side the early lead. It was a good start from Voortrekker, but those points, scored in the third minute, were to be their last of the contest.
Hartpury captain: “SA Schools are the toughest”
https://www.pinnacle-schools.com/2023/04/09/rugby-kerf-2/
After another knock-on from a high kick, Voortrekker were almost in again, but Westville escaped by conceding a five-metre scrum. Coach Zulu was not happy with the butter fingers his side was showing.
“In our end of the game chat, we said to the guys the first positive thing was we won the game. The second positive was, if you are trying to analyse us, you can’t really because we were that bad,” he said with a laugh.
Ball in hand approach
Westville, though, were playing a ball in hand type of game, while Voortrekker were turning to the boot to try to play deep inside the KZN school’s half. Soon, captain Tebogo M’khomazi and his team were rewarded for their more adventurous approach when they ran three-quarters the length of the field to open their account.
On the counter-attack, flank Caleb Dreydon, with some fancy footwork, made a big break down the left wing. He rumbled up into the Voortrekker 22m, and just before he was tackled found Rylan Jones with an inside pass, which put the scrumhalf in under the posts. The easy conversion put Westville ahead, where they would remain for the rest of the match.
KERF day three results, coaches’ and captains’ takes
https://www.pinnacle-schools.com/2023/04/11/rugby-kerf-3/
With a clear physical dominance, the Griffin went on to a 28-5 win, but it wasn’t a good performance, coach Zulu told Pinnacle Schools.
He said, at times, the team allowed play to become too loose, and that affected their momentum: “Even at half-time, I said to them we’d spoken so much about wanting to be the same team that played against Kearsney, in terms of expressing ourselves and having fun, so let’s continue to do that.
“But let’s not get bored; sometimes the kids want to do cross-kicks now. They want to off-load, but I felt they offloaded way too many times, when they should have just gone to ground and placed the ball.”
Strong wind
The strong wind, which is something the KZN teams seldom have to face, was an interesting challenge, he added, but he appreciated the fact that it asked different questions of his players:
“That’s the beautiful thing about coming to this festival. In Durban, we are so spoilt. It’s beautiful weather, the pitches are nice and fast. It’s a challenge to play in the wind.
“I don’t think we did that well in the conditions. I think Unathi [Mlotshwa], playing at fullback for the first time, allowed the ball to bounce, which shouldn’t happen. We did the same thing against DHS and were punished for it. I feel like we need to learn our lesson.
“I love that we get to play different opposition in different conditions when we travel.”
Big stage
On Saturday, Westville face the hosts, Grey High, in the main game of the day. Coach Zulu said he is thankful for being given the big stage and he and the team are looking forward to putting their best foot forward.
“It’s a big one. It’s the main game. So, we have to be on our A-game,” he said.
“If we play like we played on Thursday, we’ll get a hiding, but if we do our jobs properly, and we’ve analysed them and seen the dangers, we can do well.”
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