Wednesday Club Rugby Column – Featured Durban Blog

In what has been the perfect build up to the Wahl Bartmann Fidelity Security Club Rugby day at Growthpoint Kings Park this coming Saturday, the Flya Knockout tournament hosted by Bidvest Insurance Crusaders and the 71st Flya Sportswear Bozas Cup hosted by the 96 year old Eshowe Rugby Club over the last weekend, produced some wonderful running rugby.

Its now time for the club season proper to swing into action with the first game an Saturday between Varsity College and Newcastle kicking off at 10.30 am at the Shark Tank, which welcomes in the 2017 season as the Fidelity Security Premier Division sides prepare to do battle for the oldest piece of silverware in World Rugby the Moor Cup.

Last Friday in Pool ‘A’ of the tournament Your Communications College Rovers beat Crusaders 32-20 to win the Flya Knockout trophy for the first time. It was the fifth final of the tournament and arguably the most entertaining with the hosts Saders giving it their all in the closing stages of the game to come back from being 32-5 down with 15 minutes left on the clock.

It was Crusaders who crossed the line first for a 5-0 lead but it didn’t take Rovers long to click into gear as they went on to take control of the game out scoring their hosts by six tries to three with Jarret Crouch, Sinele Banda, Gav Scott, Juandre Jacobs, Bei Tshamala and Molotsi Bower crossing for the touchdowns with only one successful conversion being added.

Crusaders replied with tries from Sbu Nkosi, Shannon Carter and Spa Dube with Selwyn White slotting a conversion and a penalty. In the Pool ‘B’ final Varsity College went on the rampage thumping Jaguars 81-0 while Rovers second stringers beat Crusaders beat Crusaders 31-5.

Up in the lovely Zululand town of Eshowe the Bozas Cup reflected the true meaning of rugby camaraderie and here we have to make special mention of the Crusaders Top Guns for paying their own way and turning up with a wonderful bunch of rugby friends including former South African Schools and Rovers centre Brad Sparks now based in Maclear and coaching Kapaailand. Certainly the Durban clubs would be taken aback how special this tournament is together with the fact that the club most beautiful facilities and grounds, very special indeed and a perfect setting for meaningful transformation.

Mancosa Empangeni beat Hluhluwe 5-0 in the final taking home the trophy that they last won in 2011. Hluhluwe believe it or not was founded in 1951 and were in the final of the Castle Murray Cup knockout competition in 1957 won that year by Wanderers. There can be no doubt that this tournament has to be taken a lot more seriously should you want to look at identifying real potential talent that can be introduced onto the bigger stage of this wonderful game such as the big flanker from Esikhalweni Sanele Mtshali who was named forward of the tournament.

Carel Swart from Empangeni was named backline player of the day while the spirit award went deservedly to the Top Guns.

In Saturdays Wahl Bartmann Club Day Premier Division games at Kings Park eThekwini Refractories Amanzimtoti will meet Jaguars in the second game of the day followed by SA Home Loans Durban Collegians against South Coast Warriors. Next up in the main game 2016 cup holders College Rovers will meet Crusaders once again. There will also be games on the outer fields of Kings Park

Down the North Coast at the home of the Ballito Dolphins there will be a big day of rugby with the Dolphins hosting not only The Durban Mets but also the SA Rugby Legends who are taking the game to the people. So for the locals they will get to meet many of the greats from yesteryear.

Having enjoyed a Springbok rest protocol weekend off, stalwart Beast Mtawarira is raring to go as the Cell C Sharks look forward to what he expects to be the toughest game of the Vodacom Super Rugby tournament to date.

A number of Springboks players earned a bye week and Mtawarira admitted that he is ready for the Cheetahs challenge. Despite Tuesday being a national holiday, our team were being put through their paces in the hot Durban afternoon sun in preparation for Saturday’s clash in Bloemfontein.

“It’s early on in the season, so I’m still feeling fresh, but nevertheless it was nice to get a bit of a break and now I’m looking forward to getting back into the team this weekend,” he said after training.”

With a brief look back at the Kings’ match, plenty of learning came out of that game and our team are looking to make amends for the performance they readily admit was not up to the high standards they set for themselves.

“We spoke about a squad effort this season and some guys let themselves down,” he explained. “It’s not something we’re happy about because we wanted to go out there and make our fans proud. We know exactly what to do and we’ve been working hard this week to make sure there are improvements on the weekend. The Kings really played well, they were outstanding.”

The Cheetahs have had a topsy turvy tournament so far and following their demoralising loss to the Jaguares last weekend, will be desperate to get their campaign back on track. So determined will they be that Mtawarira believes this is going to be the hardest game for our side.

“It’s probably going to be the toughest challenge for us so far; the Cheetahs have been getting better every season, we know we are going to have a big physical challenge this week and there are going to be some sore bodies after the game. For us it’s about focusing on our processes and making sure that we execute accurately.

“Being back at home, they’re going to up the tempo, they like to play a quick game, so we’re going to have to make sure we’re sharp.”

With the hard ground and relatively low humidity they should encounter in Bloemfontein, there is an opportunity for us to play an attacking, ball-in-hand style of rugby this weekend

“We have an opportunity to play some really attacking rugby,” he agreed, “but first priority is getting possession and making sure we hold on to it. That is something we trained for during pre-season and showed in the first couple of games, that we can score tries. We really want to play an exciting brand of rugby.”

Over the past 10 years of Beast’s senior career at the Cell C Sharks, he’s probably faced the Cheetahs 20 times or more and he has educated insights into what is to be expected from them.

“The Cheetahs haven’t changed much, but they do test your defence, they have great width on attack so you have to make sure you have numbers on D [defence], all over the field. It’s going to be a tough challenge defence-wise, probably our toughest of the season so far.”

In saying that, defence has been outstanding so far and on a number of occasions, offensive defence has led to scoring opportunities through turnovers.

“Our D has been good, but our toughest challenge is going to be this weekend, we’re going to have to front up and make sure we don’t allow them to score easy tries. We’re going up there positive.”

And there is a point to prove for our team.

“We always want to make our fans proud, we’ve spoken about it a lot and we want to ensure that we justify why they support us every weekend. We know exactly what we need to do this weekend.”