The 2023 Chronicle

so much to our rugby in their times here.

Our last home game of the season was against Westville, this time on our Old Boys’ Day, and we wanted to close the home curtains on a high. The open age group was again the standout, with another clean sweep, and both the U15A and U14A pulled off tight wins. The overall tally was 12 wins out of 18 matches with more fantastic rugby played. Our Old Boys and families would have loved watching the high level of rugby on display and appreciated the effort that the rugby boys had made over the last few months and years to achieve such high standards. Meadows certainly was a wonderful place to be a Michaelhouse rugby supporter on a Saturday. The final fixture of the season was against Hilton away. Most teams went into the weekend with renewed confidence after a solid season, knowing we had already done well in the home games. The boys were also feeling fitter and stronger after a term of training, and it showed. We ended on a high, winning 12 of the 16 matches played and only going down in the age group A matches and the Third XV. The Sixth XV, U15C and U14C all racked up scores of more than 50 points and the U16Ds turned around a 0-30 defeat at home to win 24-19 away. The Second XV won an absolute cracker of a game, fighting back from 0-14 to win 21-19, and the First XV finally achieved the elusive win that they had been searching for since 2016. We could not have asked for a better way to end the season, and it was indeed reward for an incredible amount of work that had been done over not just the weeks and months, but in fact the years that these matrics had been at Michaelhouse. A big thank you to the coaches and S&C team of Mr Dubazana, Mfundo Gumede and Mthunzi Mdunge for building the boys up and keeping them on the field, and to the coaches for their time spent on fine-tuning their teams. And to Mr Quaite for managing the tough job of referees, a thankless task. We bid farewell to some key rugby staff at the end of 2023: Mr Rindfleisch and Mr Linda Mabuza, who patiently coached the Seventh XV and Eighth XV; Mr Sibonelo Khanyile, who enjoyed a hugely successful run with the U15C; Mr Sifiso Shabangu, Mr Junior Mazibuko and Mr Sihawu Dube, all of whom have added

RUGBY 2023 TEAM P

W

D

L

PF

PA

%

1ST XV 2ND XV 3RD XV 4TH XV 5TH XV 6TH XV 7TH XV 8TH XV

13 10 10

11

1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

1 1 2 0 1 0 1 2 5 3 1 5 5 4 4 3 2 8 8 6 4

390 273 241 276 248 259 176 292 173 202 124 255 169 260 131 244 112 156 121 26 15

242 242 140

85 90 80 89 89

9 8 8 8 9 6 0 6 6 8 4 7 5 5 3 0 4 1 3 3

9 9 9 7 2 9 9 9 9 9 7 2 9 9 7

81 59 56 85 72

100

86

0

U16A U16B U16C U16D U15A U15B U15C U15D U15E U14A U14B U14C U14D Totals:

12

232

50 67 89 44 58 56 56 50 33 11 33 43 0

87 66

137 153 141 132 144 298 231 271 172 60

12

12

182 112 4

66

4143

3101 62

FIRST XV RUGBY

T

here was much anticipation for the 2023 rugby season. We had an exciting blend of returning First XV players from 2022 and talented new additions to the group. The drive from the senior core and the competition for places meant that the squad had consistently challenged themselves to work harder than ever before and were in great shape when the poles went up on Meadows. We were short of match preparation and time together as a team when Helpmekaar kicked off the season and we received a rude awakening going down 17-3 before we could blink. We battled to stop their rolling mauls, but once we got our hands on the ball, we looked lethal. The team demonstrated their incredible resilience and fought back to score three tries through Murray

Baker, Campbell Ridl and Graham Wynne, and drew the game 24 all. Helpmekaar was the ideal pre-season game for us – they were big and physical and strong in their set phases, just like we expected from Maritzburg College the following week. It felt like a winning draw as we gained belief in the way we could play, while knowing that we still had more in the tank. College had not visited Michaelhouse for a full school fixture since 2018, but we had played their First XV at the St Stithians Festival in 2022, ending their unbeaten run with a fantastic 33-32 result – so we expected a backlash of sorts. And that we got. For the second week in a row, we found ourselves under pressure – this time 17-0 down. Yet again, the boys clawed their way back into the game, this time through two dazzling tries by

148