3 October 2023
The 2023 rugby season was a special one for the Clifton Prep 1st XV, filled with numerous outstanding achievements and highlights. In an exceptional year, they played 17 matches, won 16 of them, lost only once, and averaged nearly 40 points while conceding just six per game.
Yet, speaking with the team’s coaches, Thomas Brown and Heino Beneke, both of whom have coached at district and provincial level for prep schools, there’s one match that clearly tops all of the rest. It’s the one in which Clifton turned a half-time deficit into a convincing 15-point victory. It was also the match in which Clifton slayed the dragon that was DPHS, for so many years that one team they just couldn’t beat. Until 2023…
“In the past, we’ve done really well in our local season. However, some of the bigger names, like Glenwood Prep and DPHS, have been that step too far, until now,” Brown said.
A complete squad
One of the bigger challenges has been to compete against the depth of those schools, with their larger numbers. However, this season, the Clifton 1st XV had a squad of 23 players who understood the game. The boys grasped concepts and formations. They understood why the coaches asked them to do things. From one to 23, they could all deliver if called upon to take the field, both coaches reckoned.
Listening to the two men talk, there is a tangible feeling of pride, something akin to that which a father feels for his son, when they discuss the players and the season they shared.
The players, they agree, were all very coachable – they wanted to learn, they wanted to do what the coaches asked them to do, and they responded to instructions immediately. Even during games, the team had the ability to adjust.
That factor played a huge role in the magical win over DPHS. Before that, though, Clifton had excelled at the St John’s Easter Rugby Festival, romping to four decisive victories over St David’s Marist Inanda (43-0), Pridwin Prep School (39-5), Waterkloof House Prep School (40-7), and St Benedict’s College (53-7).
Big challenge
Then, they had three weeks to prepare themselves for their showdown with their Durban rivals, DPHS. First, though, they had to face Penzance Primary School who, like Clifton, had gone unbeaten at the Glenwood Festival, with some of their victories being by bigger margins than Clifton had achieved. A physically imposing side, they also had seven provincial players in their line-up.
Clifton, though, didn’t take a step back when the showdown took place. Thomas Brown recalled: “Their big number eight, who was the talk of the town, didn’t cross the paint once. Their big seven, a key member of the Craven Week side, managed to score after 35 minutes.
Jumping in, Heino Beneke continued: “It was 0-0 at half-time. About seven minutes into the second half, they got a penalty and they went for poles. We looked at each other. At prep school level, you don’t go for poles. Shortly after that, they scored in the corner.”
Clifton responded by taking the game to Penzance and forcing their way deep into their opponent’s territory. “We camped for nine minutes in their 22 and we had nine penalties, but we didn’t go for poles,” Thomas said. With an exceptional kicker in Miguel Suarez, Clifton could have scored from the boot. Maybe, they could have won. However, they wanted to cross the whitewash.
“We had our opportunities to score, but we didn’t use them,” Heino Beneke said. “But we were so proud of the guys. It was a big test for the team, and they stood up so well. There were one or instances when Penzance almost had runaway tries, but our last tackler hung onto their bootlaces.”
Leading by example
Throughout the season, a physical defence was led by the side’s captain Sphesihle Nxumalo and vice-captain Mitchel Rodgers. Sphe, as he is known, would keep upping the intensity of his hits throughout matches, Brown reckoned. “It’s almost as if he puts it upon himself to make the next one even bigger. He feels if he is not doing it, the other boys aren’t going to do it.”
The character and drive of the Clifton 1st XV was revealed after the loss when the boys urged the coaches to organise them another crack at Penzance. Rather than be cowed by a setback, they were motivated to be better and to take on the challenge again.
A match against Westville Senior Primary followed six days later, which Clifton won 24-0. Then they had just three days until the big showdown with DPHS.
DPHS showdown
“We, as coaches, and from our experience, know the brand of rugby that Prep plays, so we amended our gameplan and defensive structure slightly, to combat their traditional style of play and gameplan,” Beneke said.
Yet, on match day, at half-time, Clifton trailed 10-19. Brown commented: “We have had seasons where the Clifton boys haven’t crumbled, but it has been a step too far to come back from a deficit. This year [at half-time], Heino and I walked onto the field, and we were calm and collected.”
They asked the boys if they were going to make a statement. “Twenty-four unanswered points later, I think the statement was made,” he smiled.
The team’s ability and willingness to listen and implement what the coaches asked them to do had been rewarded. A 34-19 victory was emphatic, and the Prep and College alike celebrated it wholeheartedly.
Reaction
The response from Old Cliftonians was memorable, including from a boy who had emigrated to the United Kingdom. He placed a late-night call to Mr Brown. He had to find out if the rumours of a Clifton victory were true.
After the win over DPHS, Saint Charles pushed Clifton hard, but the Durban boys won 33-17. The remaining five matches of the season were one-sided. In three of them, the opposition never scored, and Clifton’s scoring was remarkably consistent – from 47 to 52 points.
That included, in their last game together, a 47-7 shellacking of Bishops, the renowned Cape Town School. It brought the curtain down in style on a magical season.
It bodes well for the future of rugby in the high school. Only two of the 1st XV will not be continuing their schooling at Clifton, while 12 boys will move into the senior ranks in 2024. Three boys will remain in the Prep.
Both Thomas Brown and Heino Beneke are clear, Clifton did not rely on any outstanding players to carry the 1st XV, which is often the case at primary school level. Rather, the success of Clifton was built upon a team ethic and good players playing exceptionally well in combination. Rugby is, after all, a team game.
The future
Rugby at the top boys’ schools in KwaZulu-Natal is exceptionally strong at present. It’s a point that Peter Engledow, the DHS Director of Rugby, stressed many times to Pinnacle Schools during the course of the season, and Engledow was formerly the Director of Rugby at the renowned rugby powerhouse, Paarl Boys’ High. He also coached in the UK and was coach of the Griquas Currie Cup team. He knows what he is talking about.
So, too, does Clifton Director of Rugby, Grant Bell. Rugby coaches from the other top KZN schools have often spoken of the high regard in which he is held.
Under Bell, Clifton has made serious strides in recent years. Those strides are more obvious when the school overruns opposition from outside of the cauldron of the top KZN schools. But the Clifton College 1st XV is well coached and able to front up to any opposition.
With that in mind, one of the abiding memories of the 2023 season that comes to mind is seeing the Clifton pack bully its way over the try-line twice against Glenwood on Dixon’s. It wasn’t that long ago that the fixture wasn’t played. It wouldn’t have been competitive. But it is now.
Quality players entering the senior ranks
And with quality rugby players, from the 2023 Prep 1st XV, who have played many years together, now moving through the senior ranks at the Morningside school, the future is looking ever brighter.
While the coaches insist the success of the 1st XV was because it was an effective unit, there were still many players who received individual recognition at district and provincial level.
The 2023 Clifton Prep 1st XV were:
Mothepu Dumisa (Durban Coastal Rugby u13B), Noah Brown, Daniel Beeslaar, Blake Ackhurst, Chayse Linley (Durban Coastal Rugby u13B, Sharks u13B), Matt Swan (Durban Coastal Rugby u12, Sharks u12A), Caleb Goosen (Durban Coastal Rugby u13C), Mitchel Rodgers (Clifton vice-captain, Durban Coastal Rugby Merit Team, Sharks u13B), Hayden Ravenscroft (Durban Coastal Rugby u13C), Oliver Rey (Durban Coastal Rugby u13B, DC vice-captain), Mholi Phili (Durban Coastal Rugby u13B), Max de Charmoy (Durban Coastal Rugby u12, Sharks u12B), Sphesihle Nxumalo (Clifton Capt, Durban Coastal Rugby Merit Team, Sharks u13A, Sharks 7s), Kyan Valjee (Durban Coastal Rugby u13B), Miguel Suarez, George Gooch, Jeremiah Slaughter, Jack Ferreira, Mason Allan (Sharks u12B), Thomas Warther, Alexander Verster, Keagan White, Jonty Mun-Gavin.
Results
Clifton 48-0 KZN Development
Clifton 19-5 Rustenburg Primary
Clifton 38-12 Hangklip Primary
Clifton 57-7 Chelsea Prep School
Clifton 43-0 St David’s Marist Inanda
Clifton 39-5 Pridwin Prep School
Clifton 40-7 Waterkloof House Prep School
Clifton 53-7 St Benedict’s College
Clifton 0-8 Penzance Primary School
Clifton 24-0 Westville Senior Primary
Clifton 34-19 Durban Prep High School
Clifton 33-17 St Charles College
Clifton 49-0 Virginia Prep School
Clifton 45-7 Highbury Prep School
Clifton 52-0 St David’s Marist Inanda
Clifton 47-0 St John’s Prep School
Clifton 47-7 Bishops
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