Glenwood beat College in thriller
The much-anticipated Glenwood vs College fixture, which has become the match to watch in KwaZulu Natal schoolboy circles these days, produced some magic moments that will live in the memory for years to come, as Glenwood won 19-12.
The opening exchanges were tight and uncompromising, with the expectant crowd having to wait 20 minutes before the first points were registered. The opening try from Glenwood would set the tone of the match as the home side took hold of the encounter and never let go.
Captain Dean Muir, back in his rightful position as leader of the Green Machine, decided to go for the try rather than a fairly easy penalty. The decision was vindicated as left wing Msizi Ngcongo barged his way over for the first of his three tries to take the score to 5-0.
Directly from the ensuing kick-off after a pass from eighthman Brendon Botha, flank Kyle Cooper took the half gap and then popped a delightful overhead pass to flyhalf Storm Pearton who in-turn laid off a superb short pass to fullback Marinus Coetzee who was running at full pace on the 10-metre line. Coetzee would scythe through the gap and speed towards the right-hand corner, just before he was bundled out 15m short of the try-line he managed to fling the ball back infield. The pass was taken by inside centre Allen Zungu who then executed, what can be described only as a miracle off-load to Ngcongo who dived over for his second. Pearton would convert from the touch-line to give Glenwood a comfortable 12-0 lead.
But, the home team could not rest on their laurels. A scrum at the centre of the Glenwood 22 just before half-time gave College options on both sides, going to the left they used the overlap for a well-worked try. The conversion was successful moving the score onto 12-7 and suddenly we had a game on our hands!
Shortly after the break, a scrum in the left-hand corner gave the Glenwood backline the entire length of the field to work with but, they didn’t need it. Scrumhalf Andrich Arlow sent out a bullet to Pearton who passed it to Zungu, the centre then delivered another magical pass to Ngcongo, who was steaming in from the left. The burley winger crashed through the middle to go over slightly right of the posts for a well-deserved hat-trick. Pearton added the 2 points as the score rose to 19-7. College did touch-down shortly thereafter thanks to a Glenwood mistake moving the tally up to 19-12 after a missed conversion.
That would be that in the scoring stakes for the day before a few tense moments at the end. All in all a wonderful advert for KwaZulu Natal schoolboy rugby.
Glenwood play George Campbell at home this Saturday @ 13.40.
