Sports News from Maritzburg College who played host to Pretoria Boys High over the weekend.
The weekend saw College host long-time friends and rivals from Pretoria Boys High for the 2nd sporting exchange of the year. This was the last of the home winter fixtures. College’s canoeists and cyclists also had a busy weekend producing excellent results.
Rugby
It was a weekend of thrilling rugby action as College took on PBHS. Out of 26 matches, our boys brought home 18 wins — a true testament to their grit, teamwork, and determination! Shout out to our 2nd XV for an exciting 24-5 victory, and to the U14 teams who were on fire, securing five out of six wins.
The 1st XV narrowly missed out in a nail-biter (27-31) which saw two very evenly matched teams face off in a great battle on Goldstones.
1st XV report (Mr Nico Breedt, 1st XV coach)
College 1st XV were fired up for the return match against Pretoria Boys High in what was their final home match of the 2025 season.
Defeating PBHS is never an easy task, and a lot of emphasis was put on a clinical start to perhaps break their spirit early in the match. College got off to an ideal start scoring the first converted try and a second shortly after giving them a 14-0 lead after 12 min. From the following restart College made the cardinal error of not securing possession and two resulting penalties kept PBHS on the attack. They managed to get their opening try closing the gap to 14-7.
College had many opportunities to score their third try but poor decision making and resolute defense by PBHS kept them from crossing the line, and finally College had to be happy with a penalty and opted for poles, taking the score to 17-07. A clever chip kick by the visitors caught the hosts by surprise and resulted in a penalty for PBHS and a quick tap try, bring the half time score to 17-12.
The opening score in the second half was a three pointer from College and not long after followed up with a beautiful turnover try under the poles, stretching their lead to 27-12 five minutes into the second half. PBHS struck back with a beautiful line out set piece play and scored a try under the poles, closing the gap to 27-19. College had more opportunities but failed to be as clinical as their opponents. PBHS scored two more tries and took the lead for the first time, 31-27 with 3 min to go. In a dramatic finish College had a scrum 5m out from PBHS`s tryline but the visitors` defense held strong and denied College a get-out-of-jail score, resulting in heart break for College and a massive celebration for the brave men from PBHS.
Hockey
In the last round of home winter fixtures, College’s hockey boys brought the heat and left it all on the turf in an epic showdown against Pretoria Boys High School. With 11 wins and 2 draws of the 17 matches played – our boys lost just 4. From the U14s to the 1st team, the Red Black White showed grit, teamwork, and College pride!
1st XI report (Mr Mark Sanders, Director of Hockey and 1st XI coach)
Maritzburg College welcomed Pretoria Boys High School for the return exchange fixture of the year, after College won the first fixture up in Pretoria 2-1. PBHS would be looking for revenge. This game was the last home fixture of the season coupled with it being the last home fixture for our matric boys. Before the game started. four players ran onto the pitch through a guard of honour with the milestone of playing fifty caps for the Red Army. Congratulations to Kadin Jenkins, Ethan Fabre, Rory Schirge and Matthew Smith.
With the weight of a long season talking its toll, the game started with a rather lack luster performance and not much excitement from both teams. PBHS were awarded a penalty corner against the run of play right at the end of the third quarter. The third re-award resulted in a goal and College was 0-1 down.
This goal sparked the College boys to life and they were relentless in their pursuit of an equalizer. Multiple opportunities and multiple saves from the SA Schools/PBHS goalkeeper, eventually saw College awarded a penalty stroke with three minutes to play. Captain Uyanda Dlamini stepped up and scored the equalizer.
The final three minutes were action-packed. College were awarded three consecutive penalty corners right at the end of the game but unfortunately could not convert and the game ended in a 1-1 draw.
Soccer
This past Saturday saw College’s soccer teams take on Alexandra High School. There were some very entertaining games throughout the morning, with College prevailing in all but one of the age-group fixtures.
1st XI report (Mr Nic Haswell, Director of Hockey and 1st XI coach)
The 1st team game on Barns field started with Mazithi Qasha receiving an award for reaching 100 Caps for the 1st XI and he marked the occasion with the opening two goals of the game as College went into half-time with a deserved 2-0 lead. Alex showed improvement after the break and were hoping for a route back into the game when they made the score 2-1 early in the second half. College began dominating possession however and their talismanic midfielder, Malachi Momple scored a scintillating long-range drive to take the final score to 3-1 and secure victory for College in the local Derby.
Summary of results
U14A won 4-0
U15A won 3-2
U16A drew 1-1
2nds won 2-0
1sts won 3-1
Other Sporting Codes vs PBHS
Congratulations to College’s tennis teams who won 7 of their 9 matches against PBHS, and the squash boys who secured a 7-5 victory. College’s table tennis team beat PBHS 19 -11, while the debating senior team won with D Gademan as best speaker, although our juniors lost. Well done to the College golfers who brought home a 4-2 win.
Cycling
The College cyclists competed in the Illovo Eston MTB Challenge over the weekend, securing very good results across the age categories.
60km junior category:
K Searle 3rd
B Fourie 6th
43km youth category:
D Rencken 4th
18km Sub junior category:
R Champkins 7th
Canoeing
At the 2-day KZN Interschools river race on Tugela, Maritzburg College’s canoeists produced excellent results.
U18
Jayden JvRensburg 1st
Luke O’Connor 2nd
James Gotte 6th
Nathan Curry 7th
Jack Odell 8th
U16
Josh Worthmann 1st
Day 2 only U16
Fynn Venniker 18th
Brett Gotte 19th
Todd Stone 21st
