Voortrekker, the big boys in blue from Pietermaritzburg, had a cracking start to their rugby season with a convincing win over St. Charles College thirds at the weekend. Head Coach and Voortrekker director of rugby, Dean Younie is no stranger when it comes to taking a school with less than 300 boys and coaching them to punch far above their weight class. He has insisted on playing Maritzburg College 1st XV every year since his tenure started at Voortrekker, and pressured their historical foes to within 10 points on three different occasions. All of this is rather impressive, considering they only field two open sides and have nowhere near the depth that College do.
With the inner city school now at almost full capacity, and marketing themselves as the most diverse school in the city, keep an eye on how they now aim to take their rugby to former glories. They currently have 5 classes in grade 8, with one class still totally Afrikaans. There is no doubt that the rugby coming out of the schools in Pietermaritzburg is top notch.
It is no secret that the Saint's boys have been taking on most of the big Kwa-Zulu Natal schools and their director Petrus du Plessis is intent on the Saints playing in the big leagues.
Although St. Charles thirds took on a highly motivated Voortrekker 1st Team, it did prove difficult for them to keep the score board rolling, it seemed to be a tough ask for the Saints boys.
Voortrekker initially struggled to implement their game plan in a difficult 1st half as well
and the big Saints forwards enjoyed the close contact at the breakdown and the contest during scrum time.
Eventually the silky skills of the Vories 9 and 10 combination started to shift the ball to wider channels and found space out wide. By the beginning of the 2nd half, the Saint's boys began to tire and lighter Vories forward started to find space. The Vories flyhalf Uiviwe Mvokwe is an exceptional talent and was also captain on the the day. Mla Mcube made huge hits and scored a 60m try after taking a flat ball in the midfield from M Vokwe, the Hooker is putting has hand up and leading the way for the forward pack.
Play of the day came from the Vories scrumhalf Luyanda Ntuli when he collected a poorly directed kick, beat 5 defenders and scored from 70m out. This resulted in a 31-5 win for the valiant Voortrekker side.
Are we to see a match against St. Charles First XV? Congratulations to all coaching staff and to the boys. Great effort out there!