Preview: Northwood v Kearsney

 

The home side are seen as underdogs for the clash given the recent history between the two sides and Kearsney's quality players. But head coach Grant Bashford, who is also a former Sharks assistant coach, feels that they have prepared well for the meeting.

 

"Preparations have been alright. We managed to get through a bit of work," he said.

 

"We had an unfortunate year with injuries and we just have not been able to field the same side this year. We got our captain back this weekend, which makes a big difference and other than that we should be okay."

 

Northwood have had a tough season far, with their last five fixtures being testament to this. Before beating St Charles last week, they suffered four consecutive defeats, which included a 3-78 loss to Michealhouse.

 

However, with most of their first team consisting of grade 11s, 2015 is seen as part of the development process for Bashford, who has only been in charge for two years.

 

"We just very young this year. We have been playing with nine Grade 11s this year in the starting line-up and with our captain back we got eight starting this weekend. It is a young group, which will benefit us next year.

 

"This is my first real year of recruitment. Our Under-14s are sixth in the country at the moment and have only lost three games, so we are developing a nice group. Hopefully the guys in grade nine this year will give us a good Under-15 side next year and onwards to the first team one day," he added.

 

Bashford has been keeping track of Kearsney's progress this year and conceded the fact that his opponents are favourites for the tie.

 

"From what I have seen, if you go by the form book and results, they will definitely be the favourites. They have had a fairly good year. 

 

"They beat some of the big sides in Durban, like Glenwood, but on any given day anything can happen and that is the beauty of sport. 

 

"We just preparing the best we can and we will give it our best shot and see what happens. We will definitely be the underdogs," Bashford said.

 

Kearsney's veteran coach Barend Kirsten believes that Northwood will pose a different challenge than some of the teams they faced already this year. 

 

"I think Northwood is a very good defensive side and they have one or two very strong ball carriers, which we identified," said Steyn.

 

"They have Bash [Grant Bashford] there, who used to be the Sharks defensive coach, and you can see in their results that they don't concede many tries. Defensively they a very good unit."

 

Steyn, who has been Kearsney's coach for 14 years now, said he is happy with his team's season so far despite a few losses and is pleased with how his players went in training this week.  

 

"Preparations have been very good. Our boys are in the middle of exams, but we had a good time training and we happy with the preparation.

 

"Locally we done quite well this season. During the Easter festival when we played Selborne, Dale and Grey Bloem we had injuries to key players and we did not have the depth in the squad, so we took some big losses there. In Kwa-Zulu Natal we have been okay," Steyn added.

 

Steyn said they have been working on key aspects of their game to try and counter Northwood's defensive approach.

 

"We targeting a couple of areas in the game. We looking very strong at the breakdown. We also looking at quick ball because of their strong defence. 

 

"I don't want to give them time to align properly and get their structures right. We had to try different things on the track this week based on what we know about their defensive system," he added.

 

Kearsney will have a talented bunch of young players to call on for the game, which includes captain Tristan Dixon and centre James Tedder. Both have been selected for KZN's Craven Week team this year. It will be Dixon's second year in Craven Week after being a replacement last year. Flyhalf Cameron Ritchie has been selected in KZN's Academy Week side.

 

 

Kearsney 19 – 11 Northwood

 

 

 

Northwood: TBC

 

Kearsney: 15 Cullen Waberski, 14 Mitchell Nesbit, 13 Matt Watts, 12 James Tedder, 11 Cian Waugh, 10 Cameron Ritchie, 9 Brendon Vorster, 8 Brady Erlich, 7 Tristan Dixon, 6 Luke Croshaw, 5 Jared Meyer, 4 Ryan Jackson, 3 Greg van Noordwyk, 2 Josh van Vuuren, 1 Nicholas Luyt.

Replacements: 16 Joshua Hagemann, 17 Darian Blair, 18 Dylan de Lange, 19 Robert Polkinghorne, 20 Warren Driver, 21 Cameron Craze.

 

Referee: Renier Vermeulen