Westville beat George Campbell
Westville dotted down three times during the second half on their way to recording a 19-0 away victory against Damelin Night Series Champions George Campbell.
Despite the comfortable looking points margin at the final whistle, Westville were made to work extremely hard for this early season win.
The half-time score of 0-0 was a good indication of how difficult the visitors found the going in the first half and for a good portion of the second half it remained scoreless as well.
George Campbell had lifted their game up a notch from their Night Series triumph a week earlier. There were noticeable improvements in their line-out department and their contesting at the breakdown. Defensive work was again a fairly strong point for this Campbell team. Good tackling in their own half of the field combined with the urgent challenging at rucks frustrated Westville and forced them to make errors and poor decisions much of the time.
Campbell never quite got their own attacking game going. With the exception of centre Joubert, they found it difficult to get over the advantage line with ball in hand. On the few occasions that they did get into the Westville 22-metre area it was mainly as a result of kick-and-chase efforts. And when they were deep in enemy territory, Campbell were never quite able to apply enough pressure to threaten the Westville tryline, often allowing the visitors to carry the ball back out of the danger region too easily.
Perhaps the most frustrating element of the home team’s game was their inability to find touch from penalty punts. They must have turned the ball over at least six times during the match by committing the cardinal sin of trying to gain too much ground instead of opting for safe touch finders that would have guaranteed their own throw-ins at line-outs.
Westville had come into this game missing a few key personnel. They were also still trying out players in different positions. Coupling these factors with the early season rustiness, made it understandable why they looked unsettled at times.
In the first half some of these positional arrangements just did not seem to be working well. Losing the experienced flank Buthelezi to an eye injury in the eighth minute caused even more of a disruption.
Westville’s pack lacked intensity and cohesion, their halfbacks struggled to develop a good understanding and the inside centre held onto the ball a few times when it possibly should have gone wide. When WBHS turned down two kickable opportunities in the first half, concerns about their kicker’s ability also arose.
However a good halftime team talk, coupled with a few second half substitutions and positional switches, saw the Highways team playing with a lot more focus, fluency and support play in the second half in spite of the deterioration in the weather conditions.
McHardy looked to be the answer at scrumhalf, Rust appeared to provide more direction at flyhalf and captain Ngcongo looked more comfortable operating from the side of the scrum.
There was already a healthy contingent of returning first team midfielders that will be competing for Kwa-Zulu Natal Craven Week honours this year but if this game was anything to go by, strong running Brad Ellse who produced a Player-of-the-Match type of performance, must now also be in with a shout. Each time the young outside centre touched the ball he looked very good.
The real turning point in the match came about as a result of a yellow card issued to George Campbell’s Craven Week player Sibulele Nanto, who was making his 50th First XV appearance for the boys in black. A different referee might have appreciated Nanto’s speed and technique at getting over his tackled opponent in attempts to win turnovers; however unfortunately for him and Campbell the referee saw it differently and sinbinned him for repeated infringements.
Westville were able to capitalise on the numerical advantage a few minutes later. A ball quickly spread wide from a 5-metre scrum resulted in reserve winger, Ndlovu’s try in the right-hand corner. Fullback Snyman then laid to rest all doubts about his kicking abilities with a well struck difficult kick that that hit the upright. He would go on to convert the next two tries .
Barely a minute later Westville conjured up a well-executed set move from a scrum on halfway. Ellse featured prominently and wing Paverd, who’d had some nice runs on the day, scored under the sticks.
Later on in a heavy downpour, sustained pressure near the Campbell goalline eventually resulted in Ngcongo collecting an inside pop-pass and crashing over to complete the try scoring.
Despite some of the analysis above, it was an entertaining game that ended 19-0 with George Campbell pressing hard for a try On the balance of play, the very determined home team who play their rugby with a lot of school spirit, probably didn’t deserve to lose by such a big margin. There are however some areas they still need to improve on.
Westville, by the high standards they’ve set for themselves in recent years, showed they have a lot of hard work ahead this week. Next up is Glenwood, possibly their hardest home game of the season. The encouraging news is they came through a tough challenge without conceding a single point and definitely finished a lot stronger than they started.
The teams:
George Campbell: 15 L Mazibuko, 14 S Ntombela, 13 L Ndimande, 12 J Joubert, 11 L Mdlalose , 10 M Nkosi, 9 D Koekemoer, 8 S Nanto*, 7 D Booysen, 6 R van der Westhuizen(captain), 5 K Mtshali, 4 J Smal, 3 L Thwala, 2 T Barnard, 1 R Mostert.
* Denotes 50th cap
Westville: 15 L Snyman, 14 D Pieters, 13 S Mchunu, 12 B Ellse, 11 K Paverd, 10 R Mchardy, 9 C Jackson, 8 T Ngcongo (captain), 7 A De La Rey, 6 J Buthelezi, 5 N Le Roux, 4 C Eibig, 3 N Mxoli, 2 M Downer, 1 M Zondi.
By Beet
