Westville topple Hilton in early season rugby derby

 

The much anticipated Westville vs Hilton rugby clash marked the official opening of the rugby season for both schools. A capacity crowd were treated to an exciting and uncompromising contest between two of KZN’s top tier rugby schools.

Westville had dominated most of the day’s rugby proceedings leading up to the 1^st XV showdown, with most matches going their way, having recorded fifteen wins out of eighteen matches played.

In the 1^st XV game, Hilton kicked off and managed to pin Westville down deep in their half. Westville managed to absorb the pressure with some excellent offensive/ defensive tackling.  Hilton  conceded a penalty which was within striking range of  Westville’s fullback Louis Snyman’s  boot and took Westville to an early 3 point lead.

Hilton kicked a penalty of their own when  Westville were caught offside at the breakdown. Hilton’s Captain, Cameron Wright converted the penalty and levelled the scores at 3 all.

A fumble with the ball by WBHS outside centre Bradley Ellse which then bounced favourably for the visitors saw a try for Hilton. An easy conversion saw Hilton move into a 10-3 lead.

Westville, hungry for points and eager to gain the ascendency, demolished Hilton’s scrum and allowed their open side flank and captain Andre de la Rey the opportunity to charge down Hilton’s clearance kick. The charge down was successful and the ball bounced into the hands of Juan Anderson who dotted the ball down under the poles and opened Westville’s try scoring account levelling the scores at 10-10. Hilton seemed to become rattled  and after several  infringements  conceded a penalty which Westville’s Louis Snyman converted  to take his team into a three point  lead at half time.

 

The second half began with the same ferocious tempo that was evident in the first half but the score remained unchanged until  with five minutes of play left,  McHardy put a box kick over Hilton’s defensive wall. The ball was allowed to bounce and when Hilton’s fullback failed to control the ball, Westville’s flyhalf Matthew Larkins capitalized on the error, scooped up the ball and scored a try under the poles. Louis Snyman converted the try taking Westville into a commanding ten point lead with only 2 minutes left.

When the final whistle blew, Westville had emerged as 20-10 victors.

Credit must be given to both teams for the manner in which the game was played, although hard and uncompromising it was extremely exciting and played in the right spirit, as should always be the case in school boy rugby.

 

                      FULL RESULTS BELOW: