2022 Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival Day 2: Saturday 16 April Game 6

 Steady rainfall throughout most of the second day of the Standard Bank Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival made play difficult with the slippery ball. Despite the weather, the excellent turnout of spectators were entertained to some exciting play from the six evenly contested fixtures. Three teams go into the final day having won both their matches – Durban High School (DHS), Hoerskool Monument and Glenwood. DHS and Monument will face each other in the midday game on Monday, with Glenwood playing Dr EG Jansen, who have lost both their games this festival.

 Glenwood 15 – 14 Selborne College

 The final game of the second day had Glenwood against Selborne, with plenty of emotion in the game as they had not met one another for a number of years. Glenwood was first on the scoresheet when they were awarded a penalty in front of the posts, about 40m out. With the difficult conditions prevailing a kick for the post was sensible and Marx obliged, scoring the three points.

Thereafter there were a number of flare-ups with emotions running high. Pressure by both teams resulted in Selborne centre Blake Schwulst scoring far out. An excellent conversion by Kyle van Wyk saw Selborne take a 7-3 lead with the break. The second half saw Glenwood starting to dominate in the close encounters. With 20 minutes remaining a mis-kick by Selborne found Renaldo le Fleur out wide and his pace carried him over for Glenwood’s first try. With the conversion missed, Glenwood led 8-7.

Selborne was on attack but knocked on and Glenwood pounced. The ball was passed out to left wing Mnelisi Gamede who changed his direction running across the field to score in the right-hand corner. It was well converted by Frederick Marx, which put the local side ahead 15-7 with 10 minutes remaining. The with only five minutes left on the clock, Selborne made a concerted effort with drive after drive being thwarted by Glenwood’s defence, until eventually flank Gabriel Kriel got over. This was converted from wide out by Van Wyk for a 1-point difference. Once again it was left to the last quarter of the game to determine the final result. This time it was Glenwood that triumphed 15-14 to win the tough game.

 Point scorers:

• Glenwood:  Tries Le Fleur, Gamede; Conversion Marx; Penalty Marx
• Selborne College: Tries Schwulst, Kriel; Conversion Van Wyk

Glenwood try scorer Ronaldo le Fleur

The Glenwood-Selborne game was a close and muddy game

All photos by TRACEY VAN DEN AARDWEG