The Chronicle 2022

U15A U15B U15C U15D U14A U14B U14C U14D Total

11

8 5 8 5 3 6 6 4

1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

2 3 1 1 5 2 2 0

240 185 303 195 176 269 337 169

104 113

73 63 89 83 24 75 67

Thanks must go to Mr Fleming for arranging the above game and for allowing us to go on two tours during these April holidays, which created some special memories for the entire squad. Captain Andrew Davis’s main goal was for this team to spend as much time together, and this allowed the squad to gel, learn a great deal about themselves and their peers, and for standards to improve. At the Grey PE Festival, we first encountered a highly-rated Kingswood team who had started the season strongly. We scored some exciting long-range tries off set-piece and led comfortably but an intercept deep on attack meant we had to withstand some late pressure in winning 19-12. Next up was St Andrew’s, and despite racing into a 15-7 lead after 23 minutes due to some patient phase play and lock Duncan Davies-Webb’s hattrick, we changed the way we wanted to play and our lineout faltered, which meant we lost rhythm to our game and St Andrew’s took their opportunities in the second half (15-17). Strangely enough, this loss helped us in our preparation for Maritzburg College. The boys were learning to keep things simple and shut out any external factors that were disrupting the way we wanted to play for the entire match. There was a worrying trend of going off script in the second half of matches due to too many messages being relayed at half-time and fortunately this did not happen in the opening match at the St Stithians Easter Festival. We scored five scintillating tries and unlocked our attacking potential throughout this tour. College came back strongly but we showed resolve and composure in our kicking game in the final 15 minutes to record a victory that truly gave the team confidence. In our remaining fixtures we defeated St Stithians 34-3 in the main game on the Saturday, the boys showing a ruthlessness in incessant rain, and then disposing of St Alban’s 37-7 in muddy conditions. The positive of these last two games was balancing attacking intent with solid defence as we defended for long periods on our own line against St Stithians, and only conceded an intercept try against St Alban’s. We returned from the holidays brimming with confidence and beat a feisty Northwood outfit 38-18, but the visitors exposed some weaknesses at scrum-time when our depth was tested. On to the match everyone had been talking about as traveled down the N3 for the Hilton 150th fixture. We started slowly and gave up two soft tries early on, but despite that we had played some good rugby in being 7-7 after 13 minutes and trailing 10-15 at half-time. Unfortunately, not implementing the plans that were discussed at half-time led to a lack of clarity and precision in the opposition 22, and Hilton were clinical in taking advantage of our mistakes and taking all their opportunities in winning 32-17. This trend continued against Kearsney College on our Old Boys’ Day, and despite scoring three tries to nil (22-9), we kept Kearsney in the game by not taking multiple opportunities early on. This was worrying, but the team realized we were creating many chances and had the ability to outplay our opponents. Next up was a tough DHS team comprising six Craven Week players, and we produced a lethargic performance in going down 23-14. The half-term break served us well as we returned rested and enthused for Westville on their Old Boys’ Day. The challenge was seeing how much the team had developed in playing at intimidating away venues. Our lineout attack was

8 9 6 8 8 9 5

45 63

152

86

104

43

100

158 107 7

43

4011

1978 68

FIRST XV RUGBY Written by Mr Grant Ball

Coaches: Mr Grant Ball, Mr JP Olivier, Mr Rory Connellan First Team: Thabo Njapha, Andrew Davis, Donovan van Staden, Duncan Davies-Webb, Thomas de Lange, Fortune Mpofu, Tom Carmody, Wandile Mlaba, Robbie Lawrence, James Cleland, Andisa Young, Mitchell Davies-Webb, Campbell Ridl, Luke Hoekstra, Ayabonga Zakwe, Tristan Arde, Murray Baker, Leo Muziva, Kevin Smith Captain: Andrew Davies Vice-captain: Ayabonga Zakwe he first XV set themselves the goal of being remembered as a relentless team, and they can be proud of their actions and behaviours, on and off the field, that ensured they upheld this mantra. Beginning with off-season training in October, the focus was on basic individual skills, clear role definition and conditioning, to ensure the team could produce the type of rugby that suited their strengths. Through the formation of a leadership group, the leaders took ownership in ensuring the squad of roughly 45 players united and got to know one another as quickly as possible. Commitment to attend practice and train at a high standard throughout led to squad depth and ensured the boys had clarity and quiet confidence in going to a pre-season warm-up against tough opposition in Helpmekaar. Unfortunately, we lost two players (Colm Geraghty and Rupert Hechter) to long-term injuries in the match, but the team surprised themselves in leading up until the last minute against a team that would go on to beat some big names such as Paul Roos. Testament to Colm and Rupert is that they remained integral members of the squad and the wider rugby club throughout the season. In our first fixture of the season we traveled to an intimidating venue at Glenwood, and we learnt many valuable lessons in going down 10-17. There did not appear to be real belief, despite playing well the week before, and we did not follow any of the basic tactical elements that we wanted to implement in our game. This was the exact opposite the following week when we played Selborne at King’s Park on the first weekend of the holidays. As we ran onto the famous pitch, we were greeted with a tropical storm, and it could have been easy for the boys to slip into the bad habits of the previous week and not play the way we had trained. Instead, they showed real courage and backed the defensive and attacking plans in running a heavier Selborne team off their feet. This showed great skill and patience in winning 16-10, with Selborne scoring late consolation tries. T

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