13 May 2024
The St Charles College 1st XV comfortably beat Clifton College on the Saints’ Old Boys’ Weekend, and they won convincingly again on Saturday, playing at Riverside on Clifton’s Old Boys’ Weekend, but the Durban school produced a nuggetty performance to finish strongly in a 12-36 defeat.
Stefan Veldsman and his team had won by 35 points in Pietermaritzburg and big surges at the start of both halves took St Charles well clear in Durban. They led 31-0, but Clifton, admirably, struck back forcing their way over from close range, and then earned a penalty try on the final whistle after a period of sustained pressure.
The visitors came out firing and went over within the first two minutes through their athletic second rower Raphael Ajibade. Their excellent scrumhalf Matthew Fick added another four minutes later, and the skipper, Veldsman, made it 19-0 at the break after charging over from a five-metre scrum.
In the second half, Clifton kept Saints at range. Twice, though, superb individual breaks and finishes got St Charles over the try line.
Centre Athenkosi Qumo scored the first, wrong-footing a number of defenders with a scissor switch, and then breaking clear with a sidestep to score from his own 10-metre line.
The second, scored by the electric Salmaan Mohammed, came after the ball went to ground on the halfway line. He picked up, ran across the field before opening up the Clifton defensive line with some fancy footwork. He sprinted out of a tackle and then stepped off his right foot to eliminate the last defender. It was a moment of magic from the fullback.
Before those two second half strikes, Fick started and finished an attack down the blindside, to end the day with a brace of tries to his name.
In the fading Durban afternoon light, Clifton came close to a spectacular reply but, after a wonderfully flowing move, which splintered the Saints’ defence and opened up space out wide on the right, the attack was undone by a loose last pass, which would have seen the home team in for five.
Still, they kept taking it to Saints and forced them into a marathon tackling session. Captain Simphiwe Ngcobo and his fellow forwards kept it tight after grinding their way up to the St Charles try line and, eventually, they found reward.
Then, with time up, and Clifton battering away at the stubborn St Charles’ defence, the referee awarded Clifton a penalty try, which was fair reward for a wholehearted, no quit, effort from the hosts.
There was joy for the hosts in the 2nd team game. In Pietermaritzburg, the teams had shared a 24-24 draw. This time, though, Clifton was good value for a 19-5 victory.
In hard-fought clashes, Saints won the u16A game by 10 points, and the u15A match by 12, but Clifton won both u14 matches.
Overall, St Charles took six wins to Clifton’s three.
RESULTS
1st: Clifton 12-36 St Charles
2nd: Clifton 19-5 St Charles
3rd: Clifton 7-40 St Charles
16A: Clifton 10-20 St Charles
16B: Clifton 7-54 St Charles
15A: Clifton 5-17 St Charles
15B: Clifton 19-21 St Charles
14A: Clifton 20-10 St Charles
14B: Clifton 32-5 St Charles
The Clifton and St Charles 1st XIs delivered rich entertainment on Saturday, with the teams exchanging goals in the early going to be level-pegging at 2-2. Saints did well to force errors out of the home side to manufacture their strikes, but an outstanding third chukka, which brought them three goals, took Clifton clear.
It was an impressive showing from the boys in black, who had won 3-1 at St Charles on 20 April. Their swift counterattacking, especially, caught the eye. Still, Saints brough a lot to the contest – it takes two to tango – and they could have scored more goals, if they had taken their chances at penalty corner time.
Ryde Brisset scored twice from PCs for Clifton, while Zach Williamson, Jason Adams and Daniel Rea also got onto the score sheet. Cian Fortmann and Marcel Wellman replied for Saints.
The visitors enjoyed a strong day on the turf. They won one of the other three u19 matches, with the others ending in 1-1 draws, and also won all four u16 matches.
Clifton rolled to a big u14A win, but the schools shared the games two-all in the age group.
RESULTS
1st: Clifton 5-2 St Charles
2nd: Clifton 1-1 St Charles
3rd: Clifton 1-1 St Charles
4th: Clifton 0-2 St Charles
16A: Clifton 1-2 St Charles
16B: Clifton 0-1 St Charles
16C: Clifton 0-2 St Charles
16D: Clifton 0-7 St Charles
14A: Clifton 4-0 St Charles
14B: Clifton 1-0 St Charles
14C: Clifton 0-3 St Charles
14D: Clifton 0-1 St Charles
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