Having won five tournaments in KZN, Westville Boys’ High School Rugby 7s Team qualified for Champs of Champs at Grey College in Bloemfontein to take on the best of the best in 7s in the country and ended the tournament runners-up making the team the 2nd best 7s rugby outfit in the country.
Westville got off to a very nervy start with a narrow 24-19 win over Volskool Heidelberg on the Friday afternoon. We made really heavy weather of the game and in the end Westville required a last gasp tackle by Mambo Mkhize to save the day.
GameTwo required that we rush immediately after the first game to another field and with just a 20 minute break it was back to action, this time against a highly rated HTS Middelburg. This was to be a much better performance with two tries by Bayanda Ngubane and a try apiece for Simelela Nkomo and Mambo Mkhize, giving Westville a well-deserved and comfortable 28-14 win.
Two from two and the mood in the camp was good. With these two victories Westville had qualified as top of their group and were to progress to the quarter finals to play Framesby the following day.
The boys got off to a great start on the Saturday, scoring two quick tries against Framesby who fought back with tries of their own. In the end two late tries for Westville secured the 24-21 victory.
Next was the semis and again Westville would be meeting up with the determined and very skilled HTS Middelburg team. This was to be a tightly contested second affair with Westville just edging in with a 33-28 win. Most important from the win was that Westville had booked their place in the final to play top school Grey College.
Grey scored a try early in the final but WBHS responded immediately with a piece of magic from the ever reliable Larry Nkonki. Grey were to score again to take their total to 14. Yet again Westville responded with another bit of brilliance from Nkonki who ran the length of the field to dot down. They failed to convert and the teams went into half time with Grey 14-10 up. Grey scored again to take the score to 19 before yes, yet again Westville responded with a try which started from deep in their 22 metre. Simelela Nkomo broke and raced 60 metres before offloading to Londani Mpungose to race away and score. The conversion was knocked over and the score was 19-17 to Grey with 2 minutes to go. At the death, a Westville player seemed to have made an important and potentially game winning steal. The referee deemed it to not be the case though and awarded a penalty to Grey. From the resulting penalty Grey scored and converted. The ref blew the whistle and the game was over 26-17. Westville had lost the game but had won the hearts and respect of many.
They very nearly made it 6 tournament wins after losing very narrowly in the final to Grey College. They can take a lot out of the experience and their outstanding performances and results in the 7s season will give them a lot of confidence for the 2020 15’s season.
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