Grey High School has named a powerful team to play Kingswood at 5pm on Friday at the City Lords, Kingswood’s home ground in Grahamstown.
Initially it was hoped that this match would be a curtain raiser to the Southern Kings Super Rugby match against the Chiefs at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth. However in order to preserve the field after the wear and tear of the Sharks game and with a Vodacom Cup curtain-raiser already scheduled, it was decided not to take a chance on overworking the surface.
Grey High has 12 provincial age-group representatives in their squad of 25 including the highly rated openside flank and captain CJ Vellerman, who excelled at Craven Week last year. 9 in the squad are in Grade-11.
Kingwood received a bit of a setback yesterday with injuries to both Mvelo Khumalo (KZN Craven Week 2012 prop) and flank Bradley Schwedhelm during their 43-5 victory against Winterberg. Two other players Josh Shelley and Fanie van der Westhuizen, both in Grade-11 were already sidelined before the season kicked off. This reduces the number of Grade-11’s in the Kingswood team down to 7. The private school has 2 former Eastern Province Grant Khomo players in their starting line-up.
The visitors are the favourites to win the game and are tipped to have a good chance of finishing 2013 as a national Top 10 team. They will however not want to underestimate Kingswood, who look to have put together a very useful team in what is building up to be a cracker of a season in the Eastern Cape.
Teams and provincial representation:
| GREY HIGH | PROVINCIAL REPRESENTATION | KINGSWOOD COLLEGE | PROVINCIAL REPRESENTATION |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Keagan Branford | 1. Kieran Kruger | ||
| 2. Robin Stevens | EP Grant Khomo u16 – 2012 | 2. Cuan Sauter | |
| 3. Stephan Ebersohn | EP Academy u18 – 2012 | 3. Shane Liebenberg | EP Grant Khomo u16 – 2011 |
| 4. Sipato Pokomela | EP Grant Khomo u16 – 2012 | 4. Joe de Beer | |
| 5. Hanno Minnaar | EP Grant Khomo u16 – 2012 | 5. Matthew Stappleton | |
| 6. CJ Velleman (capt) | EP Craven Week u18 – 2012 | 6. Sinekhaya Joseph | |
| 7. Johan Van Niekerk | EP Craven Week u18 – 2012 | 7. Adrian Donian | |
| 8. Martin Groenewald | EP Academy u18 – 2012 | 8. Jack Denton (capt) | |
| 9. Max Alborough (v/c) | EP Academy u18 – 2012 | 9. Yalusa Nodada | |
| 10. Richie Bryant | 10. Cameron Hertz | ||
| 11. Luca Delavechia | 1st XV – 2012 | 11. Jonathan Amadi | |
| 12. Vincient Moss | EP Grant Khomo u16 – 2011 | 12. Reece Collett (v/c) | |
| 13. Chad Momberg | 13. Davron Cameron | EP Grant Khomo u16 – 2012 | |
| 14. Dylan Vermaak | EP Grant Khomo u16 – 2012 | 14. James Chungu | |
| 15. Matthew Lombard | 15. Aneliso Mteto | ||
| 16. Luke Oosthuizen | 16. Greg Curtis | ||
| 17. JP Jamieson | 17. Robert Sholto-Douglas | ||
| 18. Gerrit Huisamen | 18. Sean Biggs | ||
| 19. Bathandwa Cafu | 19. Cuan Junkin | ||
| 20. Lamond Bower | Free State Grant Khomo – 2012 | 20. Zuko Zote | |
| 21. Angus van Niekerk | 21. Ruan Pagel | ||
| 22. Nicholas Beswick | 22. Sabello Khumallo | ||
| 23. Thabani Ngugudo | Border Craven Week – 2012 | 23. Bradley Dodds | |
| 24. Jeremy Ward |
I see the Dale boy is only on the bench for Grey thought he would be a starter
The match on 1 April between Grey and Affies at Maritzburg promise to be a humdinger. 12 Kids who represent a strong schoolboy province. 3 Loosies who represented the u/18 EP squad. Scary.