Overview Sporting Achievements
Despite gruelling heat, this weekend heralded the much-anticipated start of the winter sport season, as Maritzburg College’s rugby and hockey teams headed to Kearsney for their first set of fixtures for 2024. For the U14 teams, this was the first time the boys wore their red back white jerseys and ran onto the fields, and there were many proud families supporting from the sidelines.
On Friday, history was made at Maritzburg College with the turning on of the newly installed floodlights on Pape’s Astro, followed by the inaugural night match which saw the school’s 1st XI take on a strong team of Old Collegians. College’s 1st team did not disappoint the many supporters including a cheering crowd of boys, winning the match 3-1. In addition to the Kearsney fixtures, the weekend also saw College’s A teams play local rivals St Charles, and participate in a festival at Hilton College.
For the rugby teams, it was a great starting weekend with some excellent overall results, marred only by the two-point loss for the 1st XV in the dying minutes of the match. College won 14 of their 19 rugby matches.
Rugby
In the first round of fixtures for the year, College won 14 of their 19 matches against Kearsney. With over 30 teams formed following the recent rugby trials, not all of them could be matched by Kearsney, with some internal games taking place as well over the weekend.
1st team report (Mr Tim Orchard, 1st XV coach)
Saturday heralded the commencement of the Winters Sports season for Maritzburg College with a trip to Botha’s Hill to take on Kearsney. The match itself was a very disjointed affair characterised by many unforced errors, partly due to it being early in the season and due to the heat. College could not get any joy on attack in the first half and Kearsney led 8-0 at the halftime break. The second half was a much better affair as College managed to score two converted tries, but Kearsney hit back and managed to grab the win with a penalty kick after the clock had run down.
The first half was a very stop start affair with College battling to gain an ascendency in the collision as they hoped for with numerous unforced errors preventing any momentum from being attained. The half was all Kearsney as their match fitness showed with them having played two matches before this. A spilt lineout deep in Kearsney’s half allowed them to race away and eventually score to take the score to 8-0.
The second half was dominated by College as they began to find their feet and managed to grab some momentum in the match. College’s first try was the result from some good interplay and eventually Nazeer Isaacs scored under the poles for his first try in a College jumper. College hit back again through Luyanda Kunene finishing off a period of sustained pressure by College after a good lineout drive. This put College in the lead by one point after Kearsney scored a try of their own with 10 minutes to play. The match became a very cagey affair as College tried to play their rugby deep in the Kearsney half, but a few defensive errors allowed Kearsney to get field position again in the College half.
With time up, Kearseny was awarded a penalty and their kicker duly slotted it over for a two point win.
Maritzburg College 14 Tries: Issacs, Kunene Conversions: Slevin x2 Kearsney 16
Hockey
Saturday saw College’s A team play two matches each, the first against Kearsney and the second against St Charles College. College fielded 11 teams against Kearsney, which the two school very evenly matched. College won four and lost four matches, while three of the games ended in a draw.
All three A teams beat St Charles College, and against Hilton, they won one, drew on and lost one match.
1st team report (Mr Kyle Emerson, 1st XI coach)
The first game of the season came quicker than expected. The squad was still being selected and the weekend consisted of a series of practice matches, however the match vs Kearsney was an official fixture.
Kearsney started the game strong and applied early pressure to College with a high and energetic press on the College defenders. College would struggle to be consistent in their ball retention, and unforced errors allowed Kearsney to create turnovers. When College were able to move the ball at pace they broke the press and looked threatening. The first chance would go the way of College after a fast counter-attack. However, the final pass was not accurate enough and the goal went begging, something that would happen a few times in the game for the away team.
Kearsney crated many chances in the game, and accumulated multiple penalty corners but College goalkeeper Nic Holmes was superb and kept attempt after attempt out of his goal.
It was later in the third quarter that Kearsney would finally find the break through. Holmes made a good save from the drag-flick but was then unsighted when the striker shot from the top circle and the ball went passed him. College would push on to try and find the equaliser but could not find the telling pass or shot in the circle to test the Kearsney goalkeeper. With two minutes to Kearsney made it 2-0 with a drag flick that beat both goalkeeper and post-man.
Kearsney were the better team on the day and were able to use their territorial dominance to grind out a good win. The College 1st XI learned good lessons and saw that they will need to be more clinical with the ball to get the result.
Sports report sent in by Maritzburg College
