Westville Boys’ beat Queen’s College 50-12 at the KES Easter Rugby Festival on Saturday. The other wins were for Northwood, Ben Vorster and Waterkloof. THEO GARRUN reports.
A highveld thunderstorm descended during the second last game of the day – between Jeppe and Wynberg – with the teams leaving the field at half-time when the lightning siren sounded. Jeppe were leading 14-11 and the teams were not able to return.
The weather never cleared, so the KES vs Dale game was called off.
Westville were able to play their game against Queen’s before the rain came, and they were very impressive. Westville are one of the teams who are at the festival for all three days. They take on the hosts on Monday in what could be the game of the weekend.
Queen’s put up some stern resistance early on. Westville led 17-5 at the break, but they ran away with it in the second half, scoring five tries to one. Impressive flanker Josh Aigner scored two of their tries, with the others coming from Ockie Barnard, Mambo Mkhize, Larry Nkonki, Gareth Beavan, Kyle Naude and Liam Botha. Branden van Wyk converted five of them.
For Queen’s, Mahela Bamanye and Conley Pieterse dotted down and Mgwigwi LIyema kicked a conversion.
Northwood are one of the schools that were down for two games only. They beat Hentie Cilliers 66-0 in a one-sided game that saw them score 10 tries. They led 35-0 at the break – five converted tries – and got another five in the second half, three of them converted. They go home unbeaten – their best performance at an Easter festival yet.
The Jeppe vs Wynberg game was nicely poised when the teams came off. Wynberg started the stronger of the two sides and were first on the board via a Devon Pretorius penalty. Jeppe got tries through Kamogelo Tlome and Boitumelo Tsatsane, both of which were converted by Sechaba Mokoena. Wynberg scored a try through hooker Kamva Mgwali, converted by Devon Pretorius.
In earlier games, Ben Vorster got their second win of the long weekend when they beat Hoërskool Florida 43-13. They play Hentie Cilliers on Monday and are in with a chance of going home unbeaten.
Waterkloof made their debut at the festival on Saturday, beating Hudson Park 36-25. They meet Jeppe on Monday in what will be another highlight of the day.
Marais Viljoen played their first game, beating Marlow 33-24, while Nico Malan took their second heavy defeat, going down 33-6 to Eldoraigne.
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The organisers have tweaked the schedule to give Dale a second game after their match against KES was called off. Nico Malan will now play the KES 2nd XV at 8:15am and Dale will play Marais Viljoen at 9:30am. The rest of the programme stays the same.
The Jeppe vs Waterkloof and KES vs Westville clashes are likely to be the highlights.
Day 2 results:
Ben Vorster 43 Florida 13
Northwood 66 Hentie Cilliers 0
Waterkloof 36 Hudson Park 25
Marais Viljoen 33 Marlow 24
Eldoraigne 33 Nico Malan 6
Westville 50 Queen’s 12
Jeppe 14 Wynberg 11 (abandoned at half-time)
KES vs Dale (cancelled due to lightning)
