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School rugby's back and it was quite an opening weekend

 



Schools rugby got back on track over the long weekend, following a year-long break, and it was great to see.

I was at the Monument Centenary Festival where, the absence of spectators apart, there was a welcome familiarity about the action on the field. There was some early season rustiness in the handling, some suicidal attacking play and a few helter-skelter offloads in keeping with attempts to enter the festival spirit. 

It was clear that the boys have been training hard for a long, long time. There was superb physical conditioning on display and, even at an event featuring many of our top schools, the size and definition of some of the boys was quite incredible.

And the gap between the top sides and the rest hasn’t gone away during the shutdown. The late games on Friday and Saturday, featuring the regularly top-ranked schools, were a clear step up. They were massively physical encounters, with professional level skills on display.

It was day one of the season, but it was already clear that Grey College, Paarl Gim, Paarl Boys’ High, Monument, Garsfontein, Affies and (as a possible newcomer to the club) Stellenberg, are going to be among the teams to watch this year.

And there were standout players aplenty. It would be silly to start writing up players on the strength of one performance, but there were those who caught the eye. The flyhalves of Grey and Paarl Gim, for instance – Jean Smith and Liam Koen, the sons of Springboks Franco and Louis, respectively. Paarl Boy’s High number 10, Campion von Ludwig was as impressive .

Monument flanker Evan Retief caught the eye, as did St John’s centre Ike Mabope.

There were plenty of others.  

Monument Centenary Festival Results

Day 1

EG Jansen 33 Ben Vorster 17
Menlo Park 42 St John's 24
Garsfontein 33 Nelspruit 17
Affies 19 Noord Kaap 9

Day 2
Milnerton 66 Northcliff 19
Hoërskool Rustenburg 41 Pretoria Boys' High 15
Outeniqua 29 Noordheuwel 17
Stellenberg 34 Helpmekaar 12
Paarl Boys' High 59 Welkom Gimnasium 21
Paarl Gimnasium 18 Grey College 16
Monument 28 HTS Drostdy 26

Day 3
St John’s 45 Milnerton 24
Nelspruit 40 Noord Kaap 24
HT Drostdy 34 Ben Vorster 20

. Fochville and Bekker - two schools on the rural Western fringes of the province - decided that they wanted to be the first to play an official match after the Covid lockdown, so their derby kicked off at 5am on Friday! Fochville won 50-7, in a night-day game. 


Other Scores

Fochville 50 Bekker 7
Maritzburg College 35 Voortrekker Bethlehem 17
Paul Roos Gim 45 Boland Landbou 21 

Just about all of the top schools go straight from the Monument Festival into the Noord-Suid Tournament, which is hosted at Pretoria Affies as part of their Centenary celebrations starting tomorrow. The Affies 100th anniversary was actually in 2020 and they were going to host a World Festival before Covid struck. So, it appears, this is a carry-over from that.

 The shortened 2021 season is taking on a bit of a tournament format, as apposed to the normal one game a week arrangement. It’s allowing us to see some big matchups within a short space of time which will give a good indication of where the school rugby power lies this this year.

 We’ll see, for example, Paarl Gim’s win over Grey College in better context after their two tough encounters against Garsfontein and Helpmekaar while Helpmekaar, in turn, get a chance to make good their disappointing defeat at the hands of Stellenberg.

Monument face two big challenges – against Stellenberg and Paarl Boys High, who were very impressive in downing Welkom Gimnasium at the Monnas tournament.

 Noord-Suid Tournament Fixtures

 Tuesday 27th April

2.30pm EG Jansen vs Welkom Gim, 4pm Garsfontein vs Paarl Gim, 5.30pm Monument vs Stellenberg, 7pm Affies vs Oakdale.

Wednesday 28th April

1.15pm HTS Middelburg vs Duineveld, 2.30pm Marais Viljoen vs Durbanville, 4pm Noordheuwel vs Paarl Boys’ High, 5.30pm Helpmekaar vs Outiniqua; 7pm Menlo Park vs Grey College.

Friday 30th April

6pm HTS Middelburg vs Stellenberg, 7.30pm Garsfontein vs Oakdale.

Saturday 1st May

9am Noordheuwel vs Durbanville, 10.30am Helpmekaar vs Paarl Gim, 12pm Monument vs Paarl Boys’ High, 1.30pm Nelspruit vs Duineveld, 3pm Marais Viljoen vs Outeniqua, 4.30pm EG Jansen vs Grey College, 6pm Affies vs Welkom Gim.

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