Michaelhouse win Midlands - again
The Balgowan leg of the Michaelhouse vs Hilton Derby was another positive day for open age group rugby at Michaelhouse. With a mixed bag of results in age group rugby, Michaelhouse's open teams went undefeated again, and have only lost two fixtures against their rivals from Hilton on the last four derby day encounters.
With social media buzzing and amateur rugby historians reaching for their record books, during the build-up to the 1st XV encounter, the aura of expectation rippling through the large crowd that had gathered on the banks of Meadows in anticipation of the 14.50 kickoff was quite palpable.
History was made at a closed function in London where over a hundred Michaelhouse and Hilton College Old Boys watched a live screening of the match. Twitter and facebook banter had reached fever-pitch globally by the time Matthew Dahl led the boys in white at a canter onto Meadows. Topics of discussion never ranged far from remembering how the hosts stumbled against Hilton at the final hurdle of achieving unbeaten records in both 1991 and 1993. Indeed, it was in 1909 that Michaelhouse were last able to go unbeaten in a season; but on the heels of Hilton's emphatic win over Kearsney College the previous weekend, the visitors would have had reason to be confident of another famous upset.
And when skipper and Craven Week scrumhalf, Matthew Dahl was first to cross the whitewash for a converted try for the visitors to take an early 7-3 lead there would have been many Hilton College supporters who began to believe that a shock victory might be on the cards.
Star Michaelhouse flyhalf, Bader Pretorius, having regained the lead with two more well taken penalties still had more to contribute to the occasion when he managed to crack open Hilton's organised defence. Following a well worked line-out, he covered 50m to dot down under the posts. Craven Week fullback, Victor Foster was then able to take advantage of numbers on the outside after a patient string of phases to run in another converted try to take the half time advantage to 23-7.
As has become the norm this season, Michaelhouse upped their concentration and their tempo in the second half, and the lead was quickly extended to 33-7 through a try by hooker Matt Wiseman and a conversion and a penalty by Pretorius.
Hilton refused to lie down and landed a penalty to make the score 33-10. Once again though, some good interplay between forwards and backs led to a try by flank Luke Tomlinson which took the score to 38-10.
Uncharacteristically, Michaelhouse did not quite shift beyond fourth gear in the second half and to many it looked as though they were comfortable defending their lead. This approach allowed a defiant Hilton to stage a fightback as they strung passes together to run in a well deserved try, followed quickly by a cheeky intercept try – both converted.
Final score: Michaelhouse 38 Hilton 24
By Murray Witherspoon
