Kearsney celebrates double victory against Westville
The crowd was certainly entertained when Kearsney hosted one of their biggest traditional rivals, Westville Boys' High School at the weekend.
KEARSNEY College had two great 1st team wins in rugby and hockey against Westville Boys’ High School at the weekend.
Kearsney scored the first try through fullback Robbie Koenig from a rehearsed backline move from the left-hand side of the field. Taine Muirhead converted for an early 7-nil lead.
Westville scored their first try of the match six minutes later when fly-half Kyle Forsyth stopped two defenders for a converted try. Scores leveled at 7-all.
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After a handling blunder by the hosts, Westville’s winger, Habana Mkwanazi, scored an opportunistic try when he toed the ball down the touch line and managed to dive on to it with centimetres spare to the dead ball line. This took the lead to 12-7 in Westville’s favour.
It was not long before Kearsney scored again to regain the lead from a try scored by hooker Taine Polzi after some good phase play. Muirhead converted for a 14-12 lead. Unfortunately for the hosts, they squandered some opportunities and the score remained unchanged at the half time whistle.
Kearsney opened their account in the second half with a Muirhead penalty, following a tackle infringement by the visitors.
Kearsney was dominant in field territory and its centre, Derick Marshall, received a switch pass from his flyhalf 15m out. He impressed with his acceleration and power to score a deserving converted try and stretching the lead to 24-12.
The hosts seemed confident but a series of mistakes allowed Westville back into the race when they scored a converted try from winger Mkwanazi, shrinking the gap to 19-24.
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Kearsney’s flyhalf, Jacques Odendaal, made up for not finding touch from an earlier penalty when he sliced through the defence after receiving the ball from an ensuing left-hand scrum. Muirhead again converted, widening the gap to 31-19.
Westville made good of a catch and drive line-out and was awarded a penalty try when Kearsney was adjudged to have entered from the side of the maul, again shrinking the gap to 26-31.
Kearsney responded immediately from the kick-off when captain Sibu Sangweni collected a loose ruck ball, resulting from good pressure and physical contact, for Muirhead to convert and take the score to 38-26.
The match ended with another penalty try to the visitors, when a player was tackled in the air after collecting a chip kick 10m from the try line. The final score was 38 – 33 to Kearsney.
Hockey
The Kearsney-Westville fixture in recent years has always been a tight affair and nothing less was expected this weekend.
Kearsney captain, Guy Morgan, and influential midfielder, Luyanda Chiliza, were not available for this game due to injury, putting additional pressure on the hosts.
The game started well for Kearsney and saw them create many scoring opportunities and dictate the tempo of the game.
They won a number of short corners, of which two were converted by Hayden de Kock and Liam Maguire. Man-of-the-match Maguire was playing in his 50th game for Kearsney 1st X1. Kearsney went into half-time 2-0 up.
The second half followed a similar pattern, with Kearsney controlling most of the play. Westville now started to look dangerous on counters and created a number of opportunities of their own. Kearsney’s Jethro Strydom in goal was having a strong game and kept all efforts out.
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Halfway through the second half, Kearsney scored a further two goals in quick succession through Gavin Shelly and Steven Conway, putting them 4-0 up.
Credit must go to Westville who did not give in and continued to attack and managed to pull one back, to see the game end 4-1 to Kearsney.
This was an excellent result for Kearsney against a strong Westville side. But Kearsney were sharper, quicker and played with more energy on the day.
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