The first match of Saturday afternoon at the Kearsney Easter Rugby Festival was, for Framesby, all about redemption after they were run off their feet by Westville Boys’ High on Thursday.
For Glenwood, beaten by Helpmekaar in their opener, it was a chance to make their many local supporters happy.
From the opening whistle, one could sense greater urgency in Framesby’s approach, but the Green Machine was uncompromising, and that made for a good, hard-hitting contest.
Both sides showed their willingness to run the ball, and both showed equal enthusiasm for closing down space as quickly as possible, reflected in the final margin as Framesby eked out a 15-14 victory.
Miles Feltham, who controlled the game confidently from flyhalf for Framesby, opened the scoring with a cleanly struck penalty kick in the seventh minute. There was no evidence of the team that had folded under pressure in their opener. The Gqeberha school was up for the challenge.
Midway through the first half, a break on the blind side, and a delicious grubber off the outside of his boot by outside centre Reon Saaiman put left wing Jaco George into acres of space.
He gratefully gathered possession and went over for the first try of the match to make it 8-0.
Framesby continued to press hard, but Glenwood defended dourly, uncompromising in the face of the Eastern Cape side’s probing.
With time up in the first half, Feltham had another crack from a penalty, just inside the Glenwood 10-metre line, but his kick was wide to the left.
The Green Machine finally made it onto the scoreboard within three minutes of the restart, thanks to fullback Rosco Williams.
He fielded a long clearance kick, cruised past the chasing Framesby players around halfway, with an inside break, then drew the last defender before releasing Lebohang Skosana to score. Vincenzo Loutz knocked over the conversion, and only one point separated the teams.
The try appeared to imbue Glenwood with confidence, and a break by inside centre Jakub Bednar resulted in Andile Mbokazi going over, which was just reward for the hard-working No 6.
Another Loutz conversion gave the Durban boys the lead for the first time at 14-8.
Glenwood hooker Tyler Leon had the crowd on their feet when he charged clear, covering half the length of the field, but he was held up over the try line by a splendid and desperate tackle.
Having escaped a potential hammer blow, Framesby worked their way up the field, and prop Handré Schnetler powered over from a quickly taken penalty to reduce the deficit to one point.
Feltham slotted the conversion, and with that the Gqeberha side led 15-14.
When Glenwood was awarded a penalty with eight minutes left, 44 metres out, but dead in front of the posts, Loutz had the distance but not the accuracy, and Framesby maintained their narrow lead.
As time expired, the Green Machine launched a late attack, which eventually won them a penalty in a similar position to the one from which Loutz had missed a short while earlier. This time, his effort was slightly short and to the left, and Framesby heartily celebrated a morale-boosting win.
In Thursday’s match, Westville showed intent early in their clash against Framesby when the jet-shoed Avumile Lisa sped clear for a long-range try to put the Griffins up 5-0 within the first few minutes.
It was the start of an astonishing performance from the local side. Unbeaten at the festival in 2025, Westville were full of running and quickly began punching holes in the Gqeberha side’s defensive line.
After a tight first half, Westville let loose. Framesby couldn’t hang with their speed, precision and execution, and ultimately saw the game taken away from them at 83-0.
The Herald
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