MMM ! A WEEKEND OF DOMESTIC BLISS !
Look out, PE, here I come ! Nippy Paul Roos left wing Jason Myburgh turns on the afterburners against Affies at the recent Paul Roos 150 Day. (photo: Inus Grobler)
After ten days of having to follow their favourite schools rugby sides from an infuriating distance, supporters can at last prepare themselves for some local action on Saturday 18 April 2015.
And you would be well advised to take this opportunity, particularly if your side is an out-of-town one: they are going to need plenty of encouragement ahead of the looming Wildeklawer showdown !
City slickers have no excuses: all four southern suburbs A-listers will be playing within their comfort zone.
In the first of the local derbies Wynberg welcome Rondebosch to their stunning Hawthornden field for what should be an enthralling encounter.
After seeing Bosch crush Outeniqua two weeks ago, few would have given Gus and Craig’s lads even an outside chance of holding what looks like a formidable Canigou Carnivore combination. However, Berg sailed through the St Stithian’s event unbeaten and are already showing the solid one-for-all approach that has characterized their teams in recent years.
The in-form flyhalf Dom Coetzer and his fellow backs are going to have their hands full devising an effective defensive plan to cope with blockbuster Zain Davids at 13 and the dazzling duo of Amani Minani and Mike Mavovana on the wings.
The added experience of the visiting pack might yet prove to be the telling factor.
Bishops’ only two outings so far this campaign have been in Grahamstown, where they met with mixed success. Their guests at the Piley Rees on Saturday, Paarl Gym, may have played only one more match, but their record has been spotless.
Flyhalf George Lourens is coming into his own behind a powerful scrum, his delightful distribution resulting in plenty of tries by the outside backs, where left-wing Max Thalwitzer and full-back Wian van Zyl in particular have utilized the possession clinically.
Gym never have anything less than a frightening scrum, which means that props William “Daisy” Day and JP Smith are going to have their work cut out if they are to provide any sort of buffer.
The Platinum Blues always seem to find a plan: it will be interesting to see what they come up with on Saturday.
Picture a three-game overseas rugby tour including visits to Italy and Spain.
Sounds great…until you find that you will be required to field a weakened side in the first outing, then, after the second match, you arrive at the final stop on your itinerary only to have to call the game off because your opponents range in age from 21 upwards !
That is the sorry chain of events that will be in the back of the Boland Landbou psyche when they visit SACS, who surprised them up in Newlands two years ago and rubbed the Farmers’ noses in it by drawing with them on the Farm in 2014.
The Windmeul Warriors have a largely unchanged but infinitely more experienced side than last year’s unit, while SACS, despite beating Affies in Durban over Easter, are likely to find the threat posed by no.9 Jondré Williams (who has also been used at 10 when young Deon Carstens is introduced) and 96 kg centre JT Potgieter, in particular, a little too hot to handle.
Captain Jordan Chait has been proving more the general at flyhalf with every game. On Saturday he might find he has to fight behind a retreating army !
Nobody is going to accuse Paarl Boys’ High of starting the year at a gentle crawl: this week they host Outeniqua, then it’s off to Wildeklawer, followed by Grey College in Bloemfontein, with Rondebosch visiting Brug Street to round off the Strepies’ schedule for the next three weeks !
Their visitors learned quickly from the 35-10 drubbing dished out by Rondebosch at the Paul Roos 150 Day: one positional switch and they’ve cruised through the last three tough assignments.
A large, but very mobile big eight rucks fiercely, enabling half-backs Derick Minnie and Manie Libbok, in conjunction with virtuoso no.12 JP Duvenage to get their elusive little backs away smoothly.
Boishaai’s tight five is unshakeable, with lock Ruben de Villiers outstanding, and the wider the ball goes, the more scary they get. Centres Manny Rass and JP le Grange have two Exocet missiles outside them. Stocky Elester Becker and jetbooted Tyreeq February need no invitation to shred defences.
The fact that the two protagonists are pretty well matched in all areas makes for an enthralling meeting.
Don’t get any ideas about Paul Roos being inactive.
The Maroon Platoon heads for Port Elizabeth determined to set the record straight against a Grey High School side that sank them on the Markotter last year.
Grey may well still have Curwin Bosch as their go-to man, but Hein Kriek’s team has more than enough experience to deal with the talented pivot. The Stellenbosch backline oozes class, with the likes of Joshua Vermeulen, Troy Payne and Damian Willemse itching to join centre Nico Leonard as household names on the local scene.
In case you were unaware, the Young Maties will soon be heading for Japan where they will represent South Africa at the 2015 SANIX competition, which could see them play six games in just eight days if they qualify for the final on 6 May. Their opening round matches are in the Fixtures section (29 and 30 April and 2 May).
With Drostdy and Oakdale both having byes – no, they are already down to play each other soon – there is little else to set the pulses racing, with one notable exception in the WP Premier B tier.
While Bellville are likely to prove too strong for visitors De Kuilen, even without props Marco Joubert and Carlu Sadie, and HTS Bellville’s trip to play Strand shouldn’t cause undue panic among the Helderbergers, Stellenberg’s home game against Tygerberg does hold promise aplenty.
Although the Jade Brigade have a 100% record so far, their only tough assignment so far has come at TSRF 2015 when they sneaked home 19-18 against a Worcester Gym combination that had downed Tygerberg four days earlier.
So the Tygers shouldn’t pose a problem, right ? Wrong ! In between those games the Parow yo-yos had the better of a 22-22 draw with big boys Noord-Kaap.
It is difficult to see Gavin Beresford’s charges breaking the painstakingly methodical Stellenberg pattern in which flank and captain Matthew Boshoff and no. 13 Schalk Carstens play crucial roles.
A tendency amongst the visitors to lob the ball around mindlessly has surfaced occasionally this year. If they resort to anything similar to this on Saturday, Divan Batt’s battalion will show them no mercy.
No fixtures stand out on the Boland schedule, but two sides well worth watching – if for no other reason than that they, alongside HTS Drostdy, are likely to provide the backbone of the Boland sides this winter – will be hitting the road.
Hugenote head off to Moorreesburg to play a Dirkie Uys side that has yet to show its customary spark this season.
The Blackies’ side looks more well-rounded every time it takes the field. A strong, yet highly mobile tight five, guided by scrumhalf supremo Wihan von Wielligh, provides adequate ammunition for the quick boys, Gerhard Nel and Thomas Watson, on the wings.
In Malmesbury, Swartland line up against Worcester Gym, who possess arguably the most formidable schoolboy backline in the province. Five years together has imbued this Bosvark squad with the kind of confidence and cohesion normally expected of far larger schools.
Even when flyhalf Adriaan van der Bank’s knee rules him out, threequarters of the proven ability of Gustav September, Julian Lodewyk, Lukanyo Mangela and Godwin Minnaar are more than capable of stepping up to the plate.
Two away wins are very much on the cards.
The most attractive SWD action is to be found in Oudtshoorn, where the Struisies entertain Eastern Cape side Pearson.
The Summerstrand team has courted controversy of late with its stated determination to raise its sporting profile. While they are yet to convince their critics, the same applies to their hosts. This could be quite a close-run thing.
Langenhoven Gym make the trip to Humansdorp for their annual interschools meeting with a Nico Malan side that, although it showed somewhat patchy form at TSRF 2015, should have been able to regroup sufficiently in the interim to win this one.
Boland aficionados, keep your diaries clear for Tuesday 21 April 2015. Piketberg travel to Ceres to cross swords with Charlie Hofmeyr, while Swartland will be trying to beard Schoonspruit in their own Wesbank den in the Malmesbury derby.
Courtesy of Stoop Stats
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