Kingswood start rugby season on bright note

Kingswood’s rugby teams made a successful start to the season, winning four of the five games played at the weekend.

The first XV travelled to East London to play against Grens in the Border Schools Rugby Day, running in an impressive 10 tries as they coasted to a 58-7 win.

In addition, their kicking game was spot on and they counter-attacked on numerous occasions to entertain the spectators.

The remaining teams played away against Despatch and gave a fine account of themselves, grinding out several impressive victories.

The St Andrew’s College first team travelled to Humansdorp on Saturday to play what is always a tough fixture against a motivated and physical Nico Malan team.

The visitors had the wind at their backs in the first half but did not use this advantage as well as they might have, playing too much rugby in their own territory.

Jacques Cloete and Joe Bennie scored tries for St Andrew’s in the first half, one of which was converted by Daniel Hickey.

Nico Malan scored a try of their own against the run of play, with St Andrew’s going into the break only 12-5 up.

An early penalty to Nico Malan in the second half narrowed the deficit and, using the wind effectively, St Andrew’s were forced to play lots of rugby in their own half.

A well-worked try to Jason Dovey gave the visitors some breathing space, but soon after the kick-off the deficit was reduced again, to 17-13, with 10 minutes remaining.

St Andrew’s defended their line manfully for long passages of play, but in the final movement of the game, Nico Malan scored to take the win 18-17.