Hilton College’s Cameron Wright and Hugenote’s SA Schools lock Gideon Koegelenberg are the latest additions to the Sharks under-19 team. The two schoolboy debutants will feature alongside Glenwood’s Marne Coetzee in Saturday’s crucial away game against Free State.
Wright was a key member of Kwazulu-Natal Craven Week team and is considered to be one of the best schoolboy scrumhalves in the country at the moment. He is set to enroll at the Sharks Academy in 2014. It seems like the Sharks had plans to use Wright this season once his school commitments were out of the way but it was anticipated that he would be introduced off the bench. With the injury to first choice Sharks under-19 scrumhalf Stefan Ungerer it means that the talented grade 11 player has been fast-tracked to starter on debut. Interestingly Wright also earned his first KZN Schools cap in 2011 due to Ungerer being injured.
Gideon Koegelenberg hails from the Boland. The very promising 1.99m, 110kg second row forward recently represented SA Schools in an international series. He has already put pen to paper as far a Sharks junior contract from 2013 onwards is concerned. His early inclusion in the under-19’s comes about as a result of an agreement between his school and the Sharks, which will allow Koegelenberg to spend the next four weeks in KZN before returning home. While in Durban he will write his trial exams under test conditions and proper supervision at the Sharks Academy. The Sharks under-19 team has struggled for lineout ascendancy and has also been short of big physical ball-carriers this season. Koegelenberg will undoubtedly add value in both departments as the team tries to put themselves back into semi-final playoff contention this weekend.
Glenwood’s Marne Coetzee who made an impressive debut against the Leopards last week, starts at tighthead prop again.
| SHARKS u19 | |
| 1 | Nic Roebeck (Rondebosch) |
| 2 | Morne du Plessis (Waterkloof) |
| 3 | Marne Coetzee (Glenwood) |
| 4 | Gideon Koegelenberg (Hugenote) |
| 5 | Myles Tucker (Rondebosch) |
| 6 | Andrew van Tonder (EG Jansen) |
| 7 | David Fisher (Pretoria Boys High) |
| 8 | Jean Pretorius (Sentraal) |
| 9 | Cameron Wright (Hilton College) |
| 10 | Robert du Preez (Kearsney) |
| 11 | Alcino Izaacs (Namib HS) |
| 12 | Garath Meikle (Lomagundi,Zim) |
| 13 | Tyler Fisher (Westville) |
| 14 | Kotaro Matsushima (T.Gakven,Japan) |
| 15 | Sean Robinson (Waterkloof) |
| 16 | Warrick Venter (Selborne) |
| 17 | John-Hubert Meyer (Paul Roos) |
| 18 | Francois van der Vyver (Oakdale) |
| 19 | Theo Kruger (THS Sasolburg) |
| 20 | Brendon Cope (DHS) |
| 21 | Takadzwa Chieza (Prince Edward,Zim) |
| 22 | Michael Bernardt (Oakdale) |
| 23 | Matt Jones (Kearsney) |
Eish!!! The Witness got that one wrong big time….
How bad is this reporting….the witness reports that Kearsney and not College achieve 3 and 4 SA schools players in the same year….eeeish.
Heard the Editorial screw up was at the paper and had nil to do with Kearsney…sorry proud College Old Boys!,!
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@beet,ja the ref allowed the Cheetahs to engage early and that did add pressure to marne,but the cheetahs scrummed very well,infact their forwards play in general was varstly improved,Henco was good,Tyler ran some nice lines and so did Robbie,it was such a pleasure to watch well worked tries being scored on the outside
@QC86: I hope the u21 game is on TV again. I missed it on Saturday night. Yes Elliot is still under 20. He has come on nicely. I still remember a comment from a few years ago stating that he wasn’t even tough enough for SBR, so I guess he’s proven a few people wrong over these last 2 years. Also Groenewald wasn’t really a secondrow player to begin with so its worked out well for both. Thanks for the info
Heard from another reliable source that Tyler had his best game ever and that Marne was hard done by the ref on the engage calls.
@beet,Dave Fisher out for 3 weeks,sad he played so well,for the u21s the sharks captain had a blinder and so did Wade Elliot,and i hear he is only 20,Bandesio had a solid game but when Braam S came on all hell broke lose,maybe he got the message
hi beet,good nailbiting win in Bloem,schoolboys can be proud of their performances,they were alittle unsure of themselves but that can be expected,the two Fisher’s had massive games,Dave’s move to flank paid off,i thought he might lack the skills but jees he made up for it on defence,he was outstanding,bad news is he hurt his ankle badly in the 65th min,Tyler Fisher ran holes throw the Cheetahs line,but he should have,the Cheetahs backline looked very unorganized and weak from the 10 outwards on defence,our pack took abit of a pounding in the scrums,lost 3 tightheads,with Koegelenberg in the pack and adding weight i thought we would improve, but i think it was more a case of the Cheetahs pack been very good in the scrums,Sharks loosehead prop Roebeck had a good game,did alot of work in the inforcer role that you talk about,Marne had to work real hard in the scrums and that did not leave much time and energy for him to run around and play the game he likes to play,the 5 points are very welcome.
@star: No if anything, the improvement one sees from SBR to u19 is remarkable and even from u19 to u21. In fact anyone watching the u19 and u21 games back to back is clearly able to detect the increase in pace and skills virtually from the kickoff (no different to watching u14A, then u15A etc). Players like Tyler are improving all the time but so are the opposition. Opponents are getting bigger, stronger, faster more skillful. Tyler would not have coped if he relied on his SBR training alone.
In Tyler’s case attacking with ball in hand is something the area that comes naturally to him and is the strength of his game. His greater challenges are improving the unnatural parts of his game: tackling and passing at a rate that keeps him on track to make a successful step up to the next levels (u21 then seniors).
So when I say things are not his strengths, its not a direct reference to improvement. But it does somehow incorporate rate of improvment.
@ Beet- Surely there is a bit of a logistical problem for a Hilton/Hugenote schoolboy to be included.
Also with regard to Tyler,I think we had the same discussion last year where his hands/defence were areas identifed to work on.(altough attitude was never in question).Are you saying there has been very little improvement in that regard?
@oldschool: I think Tyler the attacking player is still doing very well. He could do with more ball in hand opportunities in the u19s but when he gets the ball his strength on his feet combined with a powerful handoff still make him too much for opposing backs to come to terms with singlehandedly, just like when he was at school. I still feel that his success in efforts to make the transition to senior rugby and more immediately, to play in next year’s JWC will be determined by his defensive work and even his hands+passing game (not that SA outside centres need to know too much about passing to make the step up – just watch JP du Plessis or Sadie on any given CC Saturday). He’s not bad in these depts but they are not his strengths.
@oldschool: Also good to see 2 Kearsney old boys in the mix , not bad for a little village school on the hill !!!!
Any one know how Tyler Fisher has been playing ?
I really rated him as a school boy , looked as good as the Grey college duo Serfomtien and ???when he played locally and for SA schools on the wing ….thought he was instrumental in making that westville backline one of the best attacking backlines in school boy rugger a last year !!
@QC86: No sweat. I like to think I’m not very sensitive so my feelings won’t be hurt :grin: I appreciate the feeback tho on the games and players. In years before 2011, u19s got limited TV coverage. With the expanded SupeRugby and RWC11 last year it reduced. Now its down to zero u19 games on TV in 2012. Really can’t understand why TV crews film only u21 games when they have made the effort to get to the venue and setup. They may as well just record the games and show it in the early hours of the morning if they have no other time slots available. Die hards will PRV it.
@beet,sorry not trying to be a wise ass,just very interested,Braam battled in Potch,did not have a good game,looked like he was nursing a leg,i see the cheetahs u19 hooker is listed to play for the u21s,he will have his work cut out for himself against Franco,so that puts 2 flanks on the bench for the u19s,both shortish,Dave f can move back to lock if need be,i suppose,need to win this one,Cheetahs look like they have turned their season around,great win against the Leopards in potch nogal,can’t wait
@QC86: There were 2 names that took me by complete surprise when looking at the team sheets on rugby15.com.
The first was van der Vyver who I don’t even think seen in club rugby. I had no idea where he came from so googled him. Turns out he was a centre that moved to flank for Oakdale (SWD could really have used a guy like that this year).
The 2nd surprise was Murray Bondesio for our u21 team. I’ve seen Murray playing for Grey College in 2010 but he was mainly a Cherries player. However with Stefan Willemse being sidelined it might have been an incentive for the Sharks to find a tallish looseforward to cover that possie. But interesting to see they relegated Braam Steyn to the bench, when he could have been moved to 7.
@beet,Francois van der Vyver, he also a new guy? from Oakdale
@beet,is that bench right,3 props??
Beet: I’ve added Hubert and removed Richard P. Thanks