By Neale Emslie
| Mon.02May | St Alban’s | 10 | 10 | Muir |
| Mon.02May | St David’s | 12 | 12 | Ithembelihle |
| Mon.02May | Graeme | 19 | 34 | Stirling |
| Mon.02May | Daniel Pienaar | 15 | 12 | Hudson Park |
| Mon.02May | Parktown | 36 | 10 | Pearson |
| Mon.02May | Dale | 64 | 7 | Goudveld |
| Mon.02May | Framesby | 12 | 20 | Queen’s |
| Mon.02May | Grey HS | 16 | 7 | DHS |
MAY 2, 2016
DAY TWO MATCH REPORTS
GREY 16 DURBAN HIGH SCHOOL 7
Grey High soaked up big periods of pressure to emerge 16-7 victors over Durban High School in an exciting finish to the Standard Bank Grey Rugby Festival, powered by Powerade, at Grey High in Port Elizabeth on Monday.
DHS showed plenty of running skills and cracked the Grey defence midway through the first half with some excellent play for fullback Cham Zondeki to cross over, with Sanele Nohamba adding the conversion.
Grey hit back with a powerful maul for hooker Ruan Jonker to score and the conversion, plus two penalties, by flyhalf Lubabalo Dobela gave the home side a 13-7 lead at the break.
In the second half, DHS spent a good deal of time in Grey’s half but this time they could find no way through the home defence. When they finally had a chance to attack, Grey found the Durban side’s defence equally tight and they eventually resorted to a drop goal by Dobela to stretch their lead to nine points.
With time running out, it proved a crucial score and Grey stood firm in the closing stages for a hard-earned victory.
Point-scorers:
GREY HIGH 16: a try by No 2 Ruan Jonker; two penalties, a conversion and a drop goal by No 10 Lubabalo Dobela
DHS 7: a try by No 15 Cham Zondeki; a conversion by No 9 Sanele Nohamba
ST ALBAN’S 10 MUIR 10
ST ALBAN’S failed to convert a lengthy period of pressure in the second half and then missed a penalty in the dying seconds to draw their encounter with Muir College.
After swopping penalties, St Alban’s No 8 Gustav Bouwer powered his way over under the poles to give his team a 10-3 lead at the break.
In the second half, Muir replied with a fine try by centre Sicelo Tole, converted by Neo Pepeta to level the scores and neither side were able to break the deadlock thereafter.
Point-scorers:
ST ALBAN’S 10: try by No 8 Gustav Bouwer; a penalty and a conversion by No 15 Corne Korff.
MUIR 10: try by No 13 Sicelo Tole; a penalty and a conversion by No 12 Neo Pepeta.
ST DAVID’S 12 ITHEMBELIHLE 12
TRAILING 12-0 at halftime, powerful Ithembelihle lock Hussayn Banzi used his strength and pace to crash over for two superb tries to secure his team an encouraging 12-12 draw against St David’s.
In fact, Ithembe had a late chance to snatch victory, but the penalty attempt went wide and the teams had to settle for the second draw of the day.
St David’s scored two good tries in the first half when wing Ngonidzashe Mupanomunda pulled off an interception in the opening minutes and later No 8 Joseph Lebos powered his way over.
But Ithembe stayed in the game throughout the second half and eventually the pace and power of Banzi gave them a well-earned draw.
Point-scorers:
ST DAVID’S 12: Tries by No 22 Ngonidzashe Mupanomunda, No 8 Joseph Lebos; conversion by No 12 Thapo Letsoalo
ITHEMBELIHLE 12: tries by No 5 Hussayn Banzi 2; conversion by No 10 Thabo Matiso
STIRLING 34 GRAEME 19
AFTER a close first half, Stirling displayed fine attacking instincts to run in four second half tries for a morale-boosting 34-19 win over Graeme.
The East London side led 10-7 at the break and maintained their lead in the second half even when Graeme managed to score tries. Each time the Grahamstown side drew close, Stirling, with good distribution and running rugby, consistently broke through the defence to ultimately score a convincing win.
Point-scorers:
STIRLING 34: tries by No 15 Khaya Mqashosho 2, No 10 Count More 2, No 12 Sako Makata, No 4 Nicholas Holm; conversions by No 11 Tristan Popp, No 4 Nicholas Holm
GRAEME 19: tries by No 8 Thandwefika Mgidlana, No 9 Cameron Amos, No 10 Sivu Ngqiyaza; conversions by No 10 Sivu Ngqiyaza 2.
DALE 64 GOUDVELD 7
Dale again showed their sublime running skills as they overwhelmed Welkom outfit Goudveld 64-7, scoring 10 tries to add to the 12 they put past St David’s on Saturday.
From an early stage it was clear there would only be one winner in this clash and although Gouties never gave up, they simply could not plug all the gaps on defence against the rampant Dalians, for whom flyhalf Siphosethu Dlongodlongo and fullback Aphelele Fassi each scored two tries.
Gouties’ brief moment of success came in the first half when wing Triumph Baloyi scored from a kick ahead, well converted by flyhalf Tristan September.
Point-scorers:
DALE 64: tries by No 10 Siphosethu Dlongodlongo 2, No 15 Aphelele Fassi 2, No 8 Siyanda Am, No 11 Siphosoxolo Dlongodlongo, No 13 Siphamandla Matsinya, No 18 Thandile Mpangeva, No 19 Lathitha Lukasi, No 20 Sikhokhele Buhlungu; seven conversions by No 15 Aphelele Fassi
GOUDVELD 7: try by No 11 Triumph Baloyi; conversion by No 10 Tristan September.
PARKTOWN 36 PEARSON 10
Sparked by two quick tries by flyhalf Ethan Anderson, Parktown fired themselves to an impressive 36-10 win over Pearson after leading 22-0 at halftime.
Pearson came back somewhat in the second half with two long-range tries by Keegan van Dyk and Luthando Ndlova, but Parktown matched them with two tries of their own to ensure there were no second half jitters.
The Parktown forwards competed effectively at the breakdown and gave their backs plenty of ball to work with, allowing Anderson to control things from the pivotal position.
Point-scorers:
PARKTOWN 36: tries by No 10 Ethan Anderson 2, No 12 Tyler Murray, No 14 Lelethu Mahlangeni, No 15 Michael Tambwe, No 13 Darren Solomon; three conversions by No 10 Ethan Anderson.
PEARSON 10: tries by No 21 Keegan van Dyk, No 22 Luthando Ndlova.
QUEEN’S 20 FRAMESBY 12
Queen’s hit back from a 12-0 deficit to register a 20-12 win over Framesby in a rugged encounter as the PE side failed to capitalise on the breeze behind them in the second half.
The Framesby side came out firing and tries by fullback Riaan van Rensburg and flank Bernard McDonald gave them a handy lead.
Crucially, though, Queen’s scored shortly before halftime through a powerful drive from prop Dale Venske to make it 12-5 at the break.
The Queenians struck immediately after the restart when pacy wing Asi Mrubata beat the cover defence in a 50-metre run to level it all up at 12-12.
Queen’s stayed on the attack and were rewarded when lock Aaron Brody picked up to drive over from short range, putting them in front.
It was a tough battle from then on but Queen’s had the edge and when they were awarded a penalty near the posts in the dying seconds of the match, they had no hesitation in taking the kick to make the game safe.
Point-scorers:
QUEEN’S 20: tries by No 1 Dale Venske, No 4 Aaron Brody, No 11 Asi Mrubata; a conversion and a penalty by No 16 Chris Hollis.
FRAMESBY 12: tries by No 15 Riaan van Rensburg, No 6 Bernard McDonald; a conversion by No 15 Riaan van Rensburg.
Other scores:
Daniel Pienaar 15 Hudson Park 12 – point-scorers not available
@Vleis:
That’s the stuff that will toughen him up
@Playa: One of St Alban’s u16 boys lost his two front teeth in the first few minutes of their first game at the Grey festival**, as he forgot to wear his gum-guard. The head of rugby at St Alban’s (Kennedy Tsimba) had a lot of advice for the boy as he lost his front teeth when playing for Freestate back in the day
…and carried on playing. 
** This was also St Alban’s u16’s first game of the year as they were on “The Journey” until then.
@Playa:Haha Uitenhage isn’t for the faint hearted.
@Tierkopkraal: I still have nightmares about playing DP in Uitenhage back in the 90s. That was the only time you’d see Dalians playing with gum guards on back then
@rugbyfan: To be honest i agree. DP is far from the best side in the eastern cape. The boys showed some guts against Grey and Framesby but that is all. The coaching staff was not impressed when i told them at the clubhouse after the Grey game that we were lucky to win. As it seemed Grey were just going through the motions. But still the record books show DP won. So from a DP view i hope that their luck holds for this weekend as well. Beating Brandwag would make it a great season for them. DP has lost a lot of talent over the years. When i was in the hostel we were 240 boys now they only have 80 boys in the hostel. The hostel boys used to be the cream of the crop.
@Wyvern: OK, thanks.
@Vleis: From what I was told by both parents and players, the Saints boys just had too little time to rest from the KC match and couldn’t play the high tempo game like they did against us. If you slow against SAC you going to suffer…
Nice to see Border schools appearing more competitive this year! QC vs Dale will be a cracker, of a game for all! Seems like some fierce battles, nice to see Muir making things happen.
@Vleis: Hahaha you make a very good point.
@Playa: Festivals can throw out some strange results due to teams playing reserves in some games (can have a big impact on the smaller schools), playing in strange conditions, nocturnal activities of boys on tour
, etc.
@Wyvern: What happened in the Saints v SAC game. That score is quite a shock – nocturnal activities of boys on tour perhaps?
@rugbyfan: Glenwood under14A beat Framesby 13-7 so that would show they are pretty strong. Agreed on the size-gap thing though…
@Wyvern: Exactly! That scoreline throws any “freak accident” possibilities out the window.
@Playa: Absolutely shocked at that result!!!! And by that much!!!
@Hustle: @rugbyfan: Shock for me is Graeme going down to Stirling
@Hustle: Only other game I got to watch was Hudson Under 15A against Muir Under 15A as a good friend of mines son plays for Hudson but they were thoroughly beaten by Muir 26-0, the Muir team is small but really good and interesting enough Captain by often blogger here son Queenian so hats off to them.
@Hustle: Other age groups Selborne Under 15 really good.
And Framesby Under 14 A very good they are very big and fast and I see to date have beaten Selborne/Grey Bloem and Queens on Monday team to watch.
Will say this QC Under 14 were only un-done by size and the final score of 25-12 to Framesby was maybe not a fair reflection of the game in a year or two when size has evened out I think this would be a different kettle of fish.
@Hustle: Have being out of SA since January and only got back early last week so up until now these are the first games I have seen so my 10 cents worth.
Dale were very good but must say they had by far the easiest teams to play against but they seem to be proving people wrong.
Grey PE seem to be battling a bit there seems not to be the flow I saw from them last year I think they will battle at the Rec next weekend.
Queens in both there games seemed to battle the first half in both games but when they got going they played well.
Danial Pienaar before I got there this weekend I had seen on posts here about being the Eastern Cape top side but after watching there two games against Graeme and Hudson I tell you this they are far from that I am sure anyone of the 3 Border sides Dale/Selborne/Queens would put 20 past them with eaze.
Framesby were very impressive for the first 15 minutes against Queens with there big forwards but faded very quickly and can be lucky due to a drop pass and some very interesting ref calls could have gone down by another 3 tries against QC so very ordinary
Hudson were fair and try 100%
Muir very good at times but make to many mistakes.
St Albans not bad but not great either.
Those the ones I saw.
Nice one Dale, for the benefits of a simpleton who does not get see all the games and folks want to say who they thought the better aides are? 8)