Glenwood face determined Porties in night series match

HOSTS, Port Natal School, gave the Glenwood Invitation XV A-side a very good run for their money during round 3 of the Port Natal Night Series at the weekend.

The visitors scored eight unanswered points in the last few minutes of the game to eventually run out 15-6 winners in the end, but they were pushed all the way by a very determined White Knights team. They might have lost but it was hats off to the Port Natal players and their coaching staff for the brave effort they made.

It started at the rucks. The Glenwood Invitation team’s cleaning out had been sublime before this game. However Port Natal were up to the task of getting their opponents onto the deck promptly, then getting their hands on the ball quickly and finally getting support cleaners to the rucks early. They won a number of penalties this way and when they didn’t, they did enough to downgrade the quality of recycled ball possession coming the GI’s way and gave themselves time to reorganise for the next wave of attack.

It was Port Natal that struck first blood. Converted scrumhalf to fly half Carlo Gresse had an outstanding game under the circumstances. When the White Knights had the ball, they still had to deal with a very quick defensive onslaught themselves and Gresse along with his scrumhalf Frans remained composed under some trying circumstances to ensure they retain possession for their team. Carlo landed an early penalty to put Port Natal 3-0 up, a lead that they held onto until the halftime break.

The White Knights played with the wind at their backs in the second half. They grew in confidence. More possession, more territory and more opportunities to score points came their way. Gresse converted one out of three penalty kicks at goal in this half. The hosts certainly looked in it to win it as the half wore on; this when Glenwood appeared to have run out of ideas on how to keep the ball and breach the home team’s defence. Porties employed a tactical kicking game on a few of their plays. The ideas were good in terms of strategy but had a couple of their long kicks been a little more angled towards touch, the overall benefits could have been huge given the state of the GI’s lineout work.

It was one of those wayward throw-ins that missed its target by a long way and somehow found its way to GI prop Christopher Kloppers at the back. He charged downfield and laid a good platform deep in the Porties half for the Glenwood Invitational team to attack off. When the GI’s won a penalty near the goal-line, a tap-and-go was passed to replacement flank McMillan Muller, who has become a bit of a specialist in using his power to get over from close range. Donovan du Randt converted the try to make it 7-3 to the visitors.

Porties struck back immediately after the kick-off with Carlo making it 7-6 approaching midway through the half. With only two minutes left to play, Donovan extended the Glenwood Invitations lead to 10-6 with another penalty.

Good passing and speed gave KZN Sevens player, wing Sam Matiwane space on the outside and he finished in style to complete the scoring at 15-6 to the Glenwood Invitational XV.