^ ''°'^y was built to accommodata vMrl m;7 t advance, and the bus did yeoman service over many th« k ?" u Kearsney was made to Botha's Hill, that bus did plenty offetching and carrying, and proved a most useful lorry. ^'enwood(known earlier as Tech.) were particularly good friends We D^aved thefirs^rl°™'''?p''r''- °PP°sition at short notice. pl y fi t teams of Eshowe and Empangeni. who were numerically our equals but we could not yet tackle the fi rst teams of the big schools. We would anrLeri<irirT'',®nd w'l'®'® Ne^^heless. players like Denzil Clark, Cliff and N^viii i Kruger. John Barratt, Jack Crawford. John Larrington e lle Reeves were among those who would have done well in seni r enou'gh t'o^ave chances the modern Kearsney boys are lucky was hlv'in"/nw ?i," ® venture. An immediate advantage rid h,ir^!M ® 1' boys. Being nearer to Durban. whom vT^uld nV" kk""' ^=bool teams against we cou play. Highbury, on our doorstep, made the task of developing the younger players so much easier. aeveiopmg Several years before this. Bill Payn.father of school rugby in Natal, had tried the rrrn^d^"^" ^'^hools, for we now usually defeated la^l/s If teams But our reply was reasonable enough. "When we enter the r nk o senior schools we want to be able to stay there. We must not feel that Onrr.m T sT "s"" ^fr "s''' '"ust ask to meet lower division sides, tkf •• ^h^t,we intend to take our chances,strong or weak,and to house arlanaedf*^"."' "^^titzburg Collep. St. Charles, and sometimes Michael- r ged fixtures w h s so n after our arrival at our new quarters. The ® °f steady progress, niater. k growing, and an increase in numbers meant a wider choice of fhJ w h d^^® d d '^bat Bill Payn was overloyed to hear JhffXw^ne Tk'® «her schools had been made 1"'J ® ® ""epidation on our part lest the venture a trifle too soon, but we inten ed sticking to our decision. had '^®'^d® their first team to play us in the first match of 1941. They «/e w id°"® ^® balanced. We.of course, were very light. Knowing that we ould not in any case get much ofthe ball from set scrums,line-out. or loose. tTe ma««r t d"P ^ben take whatever came our way in back^ HrrLl?''''fi ^ Kearsney played seven forwards and eight hnwt, d S u ' ,1 u"d was trained specially as an extra back, and to nvnUf f- ^^i"^® "Pbe Kearsney defence more than came up h?.= h t 'P V "®®'''b® ®n<^ that the D.H.S. coach discovered why out of sfahfT® They could find no loophole,and were being tackled a na?lo Kearsney in^deed deserved to win the game, instead of losing it by hnldi "k d k Having successfully negotiated a difficult first ur le, we ha much more confidence for the following games. It was in "®®^®''- ^Ito. with Highbury IffTdng US games pretty frequently, it meant that the smaller fry were getting plenty of practice. 'b® senior rugby players were taken tothe Sink- wazi beach as a training camp for the rugby season. Training now had to be done at school, but it was never neglected. The boys knew that a high standard of s^port required if they hoped to derive the maximum benefit from their particularly good under 15 team. The forwards knew wlflk i d »k ^ ® handled very well. It was an attractive side to atch, an there was no temptation to play the stars in the senior eam. This 298
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