27 May 2023
It was a day to remember for Durban High School when their first XV produced an epic performance to down a plucky Kearsney team 47-24 on Founders Day for the Essenwood Road school.
The passionate home crowd was initially stunned when the Botha’s Hill boys raced into a 10-0 lead, but then came some magnificent attacks from deep that culminated in a flurry of fine tries.
Turnaround
DHS went from 0-10 down to 26-10 up before Kearsney scored just before halftime to be in with a shout at 26-17.
But the boys in blue and gold opened the taps after the break, and it would be 47-17 before the visitors claimed a consolation try at the final whistle.
DHS Director of Rugby Peter Engledow was thrilled with what was arguably his team’s best performance of the season.
“I’m just elated for the guys,” he said. “We had 12 matrics playing their last game on Van Heerden’s today. It was always going to be a very special day and we focused on that all week.
“A lot of those boys have been at the school for five years. I’m so pleased for guys, like (captain) Christian Everitt, who have been through the whole DHS system, and they lost two years of rugby to Covid-19. We had a very special assembly on Friday. We had a lot of Old Boys in tears.”
Engledow said the ploy of attacking from deep in the first half had been planned in advance and in accordance with the weather forecast.
“At the toss, we knew we would be playing into the wind. I told the guys they had full license to attack. Then, in the second half, we used Deano Boesak’s boot. Luckily the plan worked.”
Resilient
As well as DHS played, Kearsney deserve kudos for their resilience in the face of the incessant DHS attacks.
The First XV team coach Neil van Heerden said he was proud of the character shown by his boys. They hung in despite the mounting score and had the final say with the last try of the match.
“We expect the boys to never give up, to play for each other, the jersey and the badge, and they did,” Van Heerden said. “More than half of our guys are under-17, and they will learn for it.
“DHS was just too strong for us to stay close on the scoreboard,” Van Heerden added. “They really hurt us with their mauling. Once their maul got going it was hard to stop and they made many metres that way.”
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