Queen's unexpected win was the highlight of a great school rugby week

My sporting highlight of the week? …. It’s been rugby all the way and I got excited for various reasons, on Thursday already, about the Muir College vs Parktown game at Grey High, knowing that it was likely to be eclipsed as the long weekend unfolded.

Then, on Friday night the Lions beat the Pumas in the Currie Cup. It’s always a highlight for me when they win these days, and that they stopped the defending champions made it more special.

But the real stars this week were aways going to be the schoolboys and weren’t there some cracking games? Hilton holding out against nearly 10 minutes of ferocious attack from Michaelhouse to win 20-17 and extend their unbeaten run in the Midlands derby; and Jeppe scoring two tries in the final minute to snatch a draw against Selborne when the game looked gone for them, were two of them.

At the Wildekalwer Festival in Kimberley where the big guns were playing, things went pretty much as expected, with no upsets. The Grey College vs Garsfontein encounter was great to watch, however. The undisputed number one school in the land up against the upstarts, who clearly hadn’t read the script beforehand and pushed them hard for three quarters of the game before succumbing, 23-9, to individual brilliance and two late tries.

But, for sheer drama, the highlight of them all has to be Queen’s College’s 21-19 win over King Edward VII School at Grey. Queen’s were thrashed by Jeppe on Thursday and no-one (me too) expected them to trouble the Reds too much. But they did. They used the second half wind at their back to keep the pressure on and took the few chances they had.

Did you see, on the live streaming, the Queen’s coach go down under the weight of his players mobbing him after the final whistle? It showed what it meant to them. Lovely. I hope he is OK. I met him in the Festival office at KES over Easter and everyone in there agreed that he is the nicest man, effusively grateful that his team was there at all.

Queen’s will always be welcome at KES, was the impression I got. A rematch on Easter Monday 2024?

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Theo Garrun Talking Schoolboy rugby

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