In a titanic rugby rivalry clash played on a wet and muddy Somerset Field on Saturday, Graeme College's first rugby side beat the Kingswood College firsts.
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In a titanic rugby rivalry clash played on a wet and muddy Somerset Field on Saturday, Graeme College's first rugby side beat the Kingswood College firsts.
View the gallery
Read the Derby Day round-up report
From the moment the starting whistle blew it was evident that the match was going to be a physical encounter. Graeme started strongly and gained the advantage at the breakdown, although it was Kingswood who scored first through a counter attack from a failed clearance kick.
Graeme continued to take the game to Kingswood, who seemed a bit shell shocked at stages, as their lead was short-lived with Graeme's open-side flanker Elliott Crowe crossing the line. Centre Abongile Hashe was successful with the conversion to give Graeme a 7–5 lead.
Minutes later, Hashe succeeded with a penalty to stretch the home-side’s lead 10–5. Graeme were still on the attack in the final minutes of the first half, metres from the Kingswood try line, but Kingwood were saved by the whistle going into the break.
The second half saw Graeme pick up where they'd left off. The forwards laid a solid platform with their aggressive driving, resulting in left winger Xantilomzi Sandi crossing the line. Graeme stretched their lead to 15–5. Graeme then camped in the Kingswood 22 metre line and came close to scoring on two occasions.
Kingswood managed to climb out of this situation and worked their way into the Graeme half, where Graeme then put themselves under pressure by giving away a series of penalties. This narrowed the lead to 15-11.
Kingswood remained on the attack in the Graeme 22 metre area for the final minutes of the match, but Graeme’s defence stood strong under the onslaught until the final whistle was blown and Graeme supporters rushed to their heroes, as a number of first-team players were seen sliding across the mud bath in the centrefield.
Grocott's Mail learnt after the first-team clash that former Graeme College star sportsman, Anselm Castelyn, who moved to Kingswood two years ago on a bursary and has been a first-team rugby regular there for the past two and a half years, was dropped days before the derby encounter.
Asked why Castelyn was dropped, Kingswood head of sport Pieter Serfontein said that Castelyn had not been dropped, but was in fact a second-team player. But in a press release after Kingswood's win against Winterberg the previous week, it was stated that: “Kingswood’s powerfully built no 12, Anselm Castelyn, went over for a well worked try …” It is believed that Castelyn's replacement for Saturday was subsequently replaced after the half-time break.
