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Here we go again, for keeps this time, I hope

 

For two years, my weekly attempts to make sense of the school rugby games played around the country were cut short by the Covid-19 restrictions.

This blog, I stress, is merely a personal reflection, of no real importance and with no authority. It’s actually just a pastime for me, but it is based on 40 odd years of watching schoolboys play rugby.

Those last two years were awful. The disappointment of organised events being called off at the last moment, the uncertainty about whether arranged fixtures would go ahead, and then the surreal experience of those few games that were played going ahead without spectators.

There were a few positives, though, the obvious one being a new joy and appreciation of just being able to have these early season rugby days and the April holiday festivals taking place again, with spectators allowed. There will also have been, one hopes, a bit of reflection and some realisation that, while everyone should be in it to win it, participation is in itself actually the important thing – no-one was losing when no-one was allowed to play!

And, oh yes, the sports directors at schools saw that you actually don’t have to arrange your fixtures two years in advance – sometimes it’s OK to play whoever else is available on the day, for the sake of the players.

I’m not holding my breath about any of that, though, the atrocious attitudes to winning and losing that we saw before sport was closed down have become so entrenched that it’s going to take more than a two-year hiatus to change them. The madness will continue, I fear, and I’ll remind you of that when the first case of unfair, unsporting, unethical and uneducational behaviour around rugby is reported – and it won’t be long.

That said, there were two big festivals over the weekend at which just about all the top schools were present, and the results from them showed that the main guys are generally still the main guys, and there are one or two possible new additions to that group.

The annual Noord-Suid festival recommenced, played at Affies this year, and at least seven of the top 10 on most pre-Covid ranking lists were there. The other three were probably at the Grey High School festival in PE.

At Affies, Grey College showed they haven’t gone anywhere. They had two big wins, as did Paarl Gimnasium. Affies, always in or close to the top three or four in the land, also won both of their encounters. Paul Roos Gimnasium, interestingly, lost both – to Helpmekaar and Affies – both were within one score though, against the best that the North has to offer, so it’s early days yet.

Garsfontein drew with Paarl Boys’ High and beat Drosty and look like a side to watch this year, while Helpmekaar, who are calling their 2022 side the “dream team” beat Paul Roos and went down narrowly to Durbanville. They certainly look promising.

The Noord-Suid festival is set up to be just that - a contest between schools from the Southern and Northern parts of the country – although it isn’t that simple: where do Grey College, and Glenwood fit in, for example?

It is basically that, however, and you may recall that last year, just before the season crashed, Monument held their Centenary Festival, and the Noord-Suid festival followed straight after. At those two events the schools from the South killed. There were some big scores and the Northern schools hardly won a game. The Cape schools were clearly better prepared and there were accusations that they had broken Covid protocols and trained throughout the summer (as most schools do).

Well, last weekend it went better for the North. In games between the two regions, they won eight and the South teams 10. So, pretty even. It will be interesting to recalculate that at the end of the season, when a full year of North vs South games have been played.

At the Grey High festival four teams had two wins out of two: Bishops, Grey High, Muir College and Westville.

Of those, Bishops were most impressive. They beat Outeniqua 31-20 and smashed St Andrew’s 42-5. Grey High beat SACS and KES.

KES had a good win over Nico Malan and then ran Grey close, while Jeppe showed plenty of character to come back from 13-0 down to beat Rondebosch 17-13.

There’s one week of school left before the Easter break when most of the top schools will be in action at one of the Joburg Standard Bank Easter festivals, or at the one at Kearsney.

Before then, there are some big clashes on Saturday. Grey High host Paul Roos Gimnasium, Grey College are at home to Outeniqua and Garsfontein and Affies play each other for the first time in some years. Paarl Boys’ High take on Oakdale, SACS host Rondebosch and Wynberg meet Paarl Gim. Pretoria Boys’ High host Maritzburg College in one of those mammoth winter exchanges that will see over 500 boys involved in action in a range of codes.

In Joburg, Jeppe travel to Monument on Wednesday night, and meet St John’s on Saturday. KES have Stithians on Saturday and St David’s play Parktown.


 

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