| # | TEAM | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | TF | TA | BP | TOTAL |
| 1 | Blue Bulls | 9 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 336 | 163 | 173 | 45 | 18 | 7 | 35 |
| 2 | W/Province | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 243 | 157 | 86 | 30 | 16 | 6 | 34 |
| 3 | Leopards | 9 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 210 | 178 | 32 | 26 | 21 | 4 | 28 |
| 4 | Sharks | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 260 | 146 | 114 | 34 | 13 | 6 | 22 |
| 5 | Golden Lions | 9 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 224 | 191 | 33 | 29 | 22 | 4 | 20 |
| 6 | Free State | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 278 | 232 | 46 | 35 | 29 | 6 | 14 |
| 7 | SWD Eagles | 9 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 58 | 542 | -484 | 4 | 84 | 0 | 0 |
The game of last weekend was undoubtedly the Bulls versus Western Province. So much has been made of this year’s Bulls team. They have been labelled as the best ever assembled Bulls under-19 squad of all times. Yet WP with only a few big-name players from 2011 school rugby has now done the double against the Bulls. After coming from behind to clinch a 20-16 win at Newlands. Province did the unexpected by beating them 38-35 at Loftus (B-field) this time out. The match itself was a tit for tat battle resulting in eight tries (four apiece) being scored at regular intervals with the lead chopping and changing. SA Schools wing JP Lewis (Paul Roos) bagged himself another hat trick for the visitors in the process. A Bulls try inside the last 10 minutes managed to get the hosts back on level terms at 35-all but WP’s Tommy Allan, a relative of John Allan, had the final say with the boot. Although Handre Pollard (Gimmies) and Tim Swiel (Bishops) are the leading candidates for the Baby Bok number 10 jersey next year, Allan, a Scottish under-20 international has certainly caught the eye and might be a consideration for Green and Gold if he is eligible to play for South Africa’s Junior World Championship team in 2013.
The Sharks under-19s did exactly what was required on a wet Kings Park outer field last Saturday. Focussed rugby for the full 70 minutes resulted in 10 tries as part of a convincing 73-0 demolition of weak SWD. Given the poor conditions the overall play particularly the handling by the Sharkies was of a very high standard and it was good to see them not taking their foot off the pedal at any stage either. The only real let downs were the fielding of kickoffs where technique and commitment seemed lacking, and an injury late on to Jean Pretorius. The full house of five collected from this bonus point win helped the Sharks leapfrog the Lions into fourth place on the log. However the real challenge for the 2012 still lies ahead. Having accumulated 20 of their 22 points from victories over bottom placed Free State and SWD this season, there is plenty still to do against teams they could not beat in Round 1, if the junior Sharks hope to hold onto this last semi-final berth. Fortunately as has been said before, their fate still remains in their own hands with games against their closest rivals still to come.
The Golden Lions slipped down a spot to fifth after they lost 11-7 to the Leopards in Potchefstroom. It wasn’t a particularly good day for the Leopards kickers, missing five penalties which would have seen them home quite comfortably. As a result of the unsuccessful kicks the home side found themselves trailing 7-6 to the Lions with just three minutes left on the clock. The Leopards backline has however been a revelation this season so when push came to shove, they were able to count on a first phase move from a set scrum on halfway to unleash in-form St Benedict’s winger Luther Obi who timed his run off an inside pass to perfection and got the crucial winning try. With the outcome the Leopards moved clear in third place and it is now almost certain that the Sharks will have to win at least two of their remaining four games to qualify for the playoffs, based on the Lions being favourites to beat SWD and the young Cheetahs down the line.
The Sharks under-19s travel to Coca-Cola Park this weekend to face the Lions. The teams are yet to be announced but it’s possible that Lions might be without the services of hooker Eugene le Maitre (Marais Viljoen) who played for the under-21 team last Friday and flanker Kwagga Smith (HTS Middelburg) who has been linked with the SA senior 7’s team. This will be good news for the Sharks as both le Maitre and Smith had huge games in the one point defeat down in Durban earlier this year. Free State should collect five points against SWD and cling onto a faint hope of making the playoffs. Down at Newlands, Province will have their work cut out for them against the Leopards who beat the Western Cape boys earlier in the season. Interestingly Province chose to break up the deadly centre duo of Janco Gunther (Klofies) and Justin Geduld (Tygerberg) last week to make place for fit again SA Academy centre Jonny Kotze (Bishops). The decision to move Gunther to the last line of defence was perhaps helped by regular fullback Cheslin Kolbe (Brackenfell) leaving to hook up with the SA 7’s squad, nevertheless it will be interesting to see if Province persists with the players in these positions.
| 14-Sep | Blue Bulls | 35 | 38 | Western Province | Pretoria | Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria |
| 14-Sep | Leopards | 11 | 7 | Golden Lions | Potchefstroom | Profert Olën Park, Potch |
| 15-Sep | Sharks | 73 | 0 | SWD Eagles | Durban | Mr Price Kings Park, Durban |
| 21-Sep | SWD Eagles | Free State | George | Outeniqua Park, George | ||
| 22-Sep | Golden Lions | Sharks | Johannesburg | Coca-Cola Park, Jozi | ||
| 22-Sep | W/Province | Leopards | Cape Town | Newlands, Cape Town |
@QC86: Unfortunately hooker just confirmed that Mark Pretorius is fit, so he is back but Kwagga definitely away with 7s.
@beet:some of those set piece penalties confused everyone,weather forecast says not to hot in JHB on saturday, 23 degrees,those last 20 min are worring me,but if SA hooker and your star Kwagga arnt’playing things could go our way
@QC86: Thanks. Good news that Jean is fit. I think we will win this game. I think the Lions will still give us a tough time in the scrums, lineouts should be better but we need to disguise our options well and I don’t think we should delay throw ins either coz that seems to result in mess ups, we can hopefully contest a lot better on the deck. Then we mustn’t miss basic first time tackles or give away silly penalties like we did at KP. Really it comes down to us playing with more ball than we did at KP. They team does some wonderful things from unstructured play and from deep, they must starting stringing together that same kind of magic from setpieces and ball in the opponent’s half now.
@beet:baywatch comfirmed same team as last saturday
@beet,saw it pretty much the same as you,scrummy is a good player,big and strong,the sharks loosies were good [7 and 8]ripped alot of ball out of the SWD’s hands,no 8 ok for the lions??baywatch sms’ed us the new times,we were told the u19’s were going to play after the sharks, so my wife and i were off to Gateway[old retail therapy]for the farm girl and had to dash back,i enjoyed the game,it was nice to get close to the play and see what goes on in the loose, compared to sitting on the stand,play always feels far away.
@QC86: I did get to the game eventually. Was very disappointed with the Sharks PR. I arrived at KP just before 3pm. No one said games are postponed or then that they might be moved to outside field. I left and had to come back.
Good to see all the reserves getting a shot. The game seemed far too easy for the Sharks as SWD tackled poorly especially around the fringes of rucks. But hats off to the Sharks, they knew how important getting tries and the points diff is at the end of the compo and stated focussed. I really liked Wright. He is a good player. Koegies looked like he is still the outsider and not quite one of the team yet, well thats just how it looked to me.