DIAMONDS END THEIR FOUR-YEAR DROUGHT Diamantveld hold their nerve to finally beat age-old rivals Northern Cape High in Classic Clashes

FOUR years is almost an entire high school career, and on Saturday finally, after four long years, Diamantveld High School beat arch rivals Northern Cape High in the Classic Clashes rugby fixture at Diamantveld’s home ground much to the delight of the hosts.

The hosts made a clean sweep of the Classic Clashes weekend, with the DHS netball team getting the better of their NCH visitors in an exciting 33-22 win at their home courts.

The hard-fought 22-16 victory for DHS on the rugby field was very similar to last year’s last-minute 26-19 win by NCH, but the hosts can only blame themselves for the narrow victory margin, with their goal-kicker missing far too many attempts at goal.

Diamantveld made their intentions known early on when they opened the scoring with a converted try inside the opening ten minutes of the match. However, not to be outdone, the defending champions replied shortly thereafter with a try of their own, but it went unconverted.

The game became a seesaw tussle from then on, with the crowds of enthusiastic supporters cheering their teams on. At half-time the hosts were leading with a narrow 17-13 margin.

The second half produced more of the same nerve-racking action and from the kickoff became a tight battle with DHS managing to dot down a single try, which went unconverted and NCH hitting back with a penalty.

It must be said that both sides made far too many basic errors with wild passes going astray and many, many handling errors; as well as the fact that – as mentioned earlier – the hosts’ kicker missed far too many attempts at goal.

Jaco Dames, the happy and relieved coach of Diamantveld told the DFA that he felt his team deserved the win. “It was a real Classic Clash match,” he said. “It was stressful and tough, but a well deserved win to Diamonds.”

Meanwhile, NCH coach Deon Carney said that their slow start and mistakes during the match cost them the game. “We once again started off the game slowly, but improved as it went on,” he said.

“It was never a one-sided affair. We never gave up, but we made far too many crucial mistakes at crucial times and Diamantveld capitalised on them.”

The netball match played on Friday afternoon saw Diamantveld running out winners by 33-22, in an exciting display of skill and commitment from both teams. The lead changed hands on many occasions during the course of the game, but in the end it was the hosts who eventually held their nerve and ran out deserving winners.