Queen's beat DHS in the wet
The Grey High School Rugby Festival kicked off early on Saturday morning in wet and rainy weather with a number of high-profile rugby schools from around the country clashing heads in some mouth-watering encounters.
One of the most highly anticipated games of the morning saw Queen's College beat Durban High School 23-3 on Grey High's Pollock field.
As has been the trend with Queen's rugby in past years, the Queenians started the game with an aggressive attitude and DHS were forced to soak up the pressure from the first whistle.
Queen's were rewarded for their enthusiasm with an early penalty which was calmly knocked over from around the half-way line by flyhalf, Josh Stander. DHS managed to avoid more scoreboard damage through the boot of their own flyhalf, Le Roux van Zyl, who kicked the Durban side out of trouble on a number of occasions.
The wet weather and slippery conditions seemed to suit DHS, who rely on their heavy forward pack to gain momentum, as opposed to Queen's, who are characterised by their running style of rugby. This kept DHS in the game for the first half as their forwards were able to gain the upper hand over the Queen's pack at line-out and scrum time.
Both sides were forced to keep the game tight and the running flow of the game was subdued by countless handling errors from both teams. Naturally, the high-ball became the obvious tactic for success and Queen's used this to good effect through the powerful boot of Josh Stander who kept his team ahead in the game with some challenging up-and-unders that unsettled the DHS back three.
Most of Queen's running approach had been snuffed out by the conditions, but scrumhalf, JP Smith, attempted to reignite this flare through some snipping breaks around the fringes of the rucks. One such run, directly after a missed attempt at goal from Le Roux van Zyl at the other end saw him put Josh Stander into space and a neat little dab through from the flyhalf almost resulted in one of the many alert, Queen's speedsters picking up the first try of the game. Fortunately for DHS, their fullback, Mabutana Peter, won the race to the ball and prevented his team from conceding a try before the break. The half time score stayed at 3-0 to Queen's College.
Queen's started the second half on a sour note when a shoulder charge from one of their players gave Le Roux van Zyl another chance to try his boot at goal, this time making no mistake from a reasonably challenging angle and levelling the scores.
Queen's, who must have felt that they deserved to have more points on the scoreboard after they had controlled most of the first half, seemed to lose their discipline from this point on and gave away penalty after penalty in quick succession.
Now on the front foot for the first time in the game, DHS started to play with more confidence and a brilliant run from Le Roux van Zyl almost ended in his putting his teammate Mondli Myeni away with a cheeky inside flip. He was eventually hunted down and some good work from the Queen’s pack earned them a turnover from the resultant ruck.
This near escape woke the Queenian's up and they scored the first try of the game when second half substitute, Simon Bolze broke the line and linked up with pace-man, Chumani Mase, who finished the move off under the poles. Josh Stander made the simple conversion and with that Queen's were back in the driving seat.
Josh Stander, who had been the standout player for Queen's slotted two more penalties to increase his side's lead with only a few minutes left on the clock. However, Simon Bolze, who had clearly made the difference since coming on, had not had his final say and his run down the right-hand side of the field from about 40m out was just too good for the DHS players who could only watch as he hit the final nail into the coffin.
Josh Stander's conversion made the final score 23-3 in this tough, but exciting game of rugby!
By Douglas Smith