KEARSNEY College celebrated a double win against hosts, Northwood, in rugby and hockey on their Founder’s Weekend.
Kearsney first XV scored the first try by Cameron Ritchie after a powerful line-out maul, with Josh van Vuuren breaking away on a charge, with good support from Jared Meyer. Greg van Noordwyk drove to the line but was stopped just short, and Cameron Ritchie received to spin out of a tackle and dot down. James Tedder converted for an early 7-0 lead.
The hosts fought back hard but conceded a penalty, which Tedder converted for a 10-0 lead after 10 minutes of play. Kearsney captain, Tristan Dixon, scored their second try from a rehearsed back row move, which Tedder converted for a 17-0 lead after 20 minutes.
Flanker, Luke Croshaw, scored the next try, which was converted by Tedder for a 24-0 lead. Kearsney’s fourth and final try of the half came from a good counter-attack from fullback, Cullen Waberski, to take the half-time score to 29-0.
Kearsney squandered some opportunities and conceded many unforced penalties in the second half. The hosts took a quick tap and hooker, Mthembu, dived over for a deserved converted try. Northwood played with more confidence and was soon on attack again. Solid defence forced a loose pass, which Tedder collected and out-sprinted the Northwood defence for a good 60m. He then converted his own try for a 36-7 lead. Northwood scored the last try of the match with some good support play, which was converted with three minutes remaining. Kearsney had one more opportunity but failed to convert, to leave the final score at 36-14.
In hockey news, Kearsney had a challenging fixture on Saturday against a team keen to reverse a loss in the recent night league and to provide a win on their Northwood Old Boys’ Day.
The game started off slowly but Kearsney eventually won their first penalty corner, which was saved on the goal line by a Northwood defender, but then re-awarded for another foot. Kearsney’s Ru Baker stepped up again and converted with a powerful flick into the bottom corner. A minute later, Kearsney were sloppy in their defensive circle and gave away a penalty corner, which Northwood converted to even the game at 1-1.
Kearsney continued to control the game, and Lyle Hewitson was able to convert a well-taken field goal to go 2-1 up. Shortly after that, James Stamatis converted from a penalty corner to take the visitors into half-time 3-1 up.
The second half followed a similar pattern, where both teams created chances, and Jayme Crouch made some great saves in Kearsney goals. At the other end of the pitch, Jeremy Foord was able to convert a great team goal that came through a baseline entry, assisted by Stamatis. Matthew Lees finished off the game with a well-taken goal on the baseline to wrap up the game for Kearsney at 5-1.
Kearsney first X1 also played Thomas More first X1 during the week at Thomas More College and won 5-0.
