| SLOT | SCHOOL | SCHOOL | BROADCAST | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DAY 1 : Thu 21-Mar-2019 | |||||
| A1 | Hudson Park | 24 | 14 | St Benedict’s |  |
| A2 | St Alban’s | 10 | 07 | Graeme | |
| A3 | DHS | 10 | 54 | Framesby | |
| A4 | St Andrew’s | 31 | 00 | St John’s | |
| A5 | Queen’s | 46 | 24 | St Stithians | |
| A6 | Selborne | 15 | 19 | Jeppe | |
| A7 | Grey HS | 43 | 12 | Northwood | |
| B1 | Woodridge | 07 | 24 | St David’s | |
| B2 | Stirling | 05 | 24 | Marlow | |
| B4 | Dale | 33 | 03 | Muir | |
| B6 | Grey Unicorns | 24 | 22 | Ithembelihle | |
| B6 | Kingswood | 52 | 12 | Parktown | |
| DAY 2 : Sat 23-Mar-2019 | |||||
| A1 | Queen’s | 27 | 10 | St David’s | |
| A2 | Stirling | 12 | 80 | St Stithians | |
| A3 | Parktown | 05 | 43 | Dale | |
| A4 | Kingswood | 35 | 08 | St John’s | |
| A5 | Jeppe | 12 | 13 | St Andrew’s | |
| A6 | Selborne | 29 | 26 | Northwood | |
| A7 | Grey HS | 33 | 14 | DHS | |
| B1 | St Alban’s | 22 | 00 | Muir | |
| B2 | Brandwag | 22 | 19 | St Benedict’s | |
| B3 | Graeme | 10 | 34 | Marlow | |
| B5 | Grey Unicorns | 36 | 00 | Andrew Rabie | |
| B6 | Hudson Park | 10 | 61 | Framesby | |
| B7 | Woodridge | 12 | 26 | Ithembelihle | |
As is normally the case, Grey has attracted just about every well-known school from the Eastern Cape as well as several household names from other parts of SA, to be part of their festival in 2019.
@Wyvern: @Umtata: It could become the Noord-Oos festival.
@Wyvern: I think the big Afrikaans schools in GP would tilt the advantage to GPs favour.
@Vleis: Interesting thought….top 10 GP vs top 10 EC, or maybe top 10 per union?
I think if we go top 10 of either province (not union), GP would win most of the first 5 matches or so but it would even out quite fast thereafter.
@Umtata: That’s a pretty good return for the GP schools. All the top Eastern Cape schools attended this festival, whereas (excluding Jeppe) there are over ten GP schools that are better than the best that attended the Grey festival….and even Jeppe wouldn’t crack the top 5 in GP this year.
@tzavosky: I heard about that. World of difference. Man amongst men. Great story for the school. Onwards and upwards.
EC vs GP, Total games played = 14. EC wins = 9 GP wins = 5
@Wyvern: Congrats on a big win. Surprisingly, St John’s performed poorly at the Grey festival, whereas St Alban’s (after taking a beating against St John’s last Saturday) recorded two wins, albeit against weaker opposition. That’s SBR for you.
All scores updated.
@Vleis: St John’s were ok in the first half but faded badly in the second. I think the result was a better reflection of the conditioning of the two teams, but it’s still early days and I’ll take it
@jappers1: Saints won 80-12 against Stirling and SJC lost 35-8 to KC.
Anyone know how Saint Stithians and SJC went today ? Thanks
@Playa: Their long time coach, Theo Pieterse, returned in 2018 and they seem to be on the up again. There’s a report by Pieterse on R365 of their game against Daniël Pienaar, which is worth reading I think.
@Playa: Agree 100%
Ithembelihle deserve praise. They’re probably celebrating for dear life. Very well done to them. Small as it may seem to everyone else, this is huge. Big ups
@beet: haha ok. Will be very tough for sure. I hope you are right. NW should be competitive but still a fair way off schools like Grey. Would be nice to see us play teams a bit closer to our rating and actually build some confidence with tight games and a few wins in a season to show the progress. I wish them well!
@Skywalker: Going on evidence of last season and on paper this year because of the high number of returning players, the Northwood 1st XV should be better than their 2014 team. It is very difficult to beat Grey PE on their home turf. Apart from their very good home support, if the wind blows like it usually does in PE, it’s a bit of a nightmare for a visiting team. So little doubt who the favourites to win are but not sure “mismatch” qualifies as a correct term in 2019.
Wow Grey High first game up for Northwood. Seems like a bit of a mismatch to be fair. Think Grey are just looking to bank a win to kick off their tournament. Make no mistake I’m glad NW were invited and have chosen to go to this tournament as well as KES this year (its good to stretch the boys and expose them to new teams)…but seems like we often draw the shortstraw with opponents
Some mouthwatering match ups there. Well done Grey. Wish I could be there.
@beet: Agree. KC are rarely favorites in any given year.
Our star flyhalf in the making from last years u15 team has also left for Hudson.
@Wyvern: I heard that Kingwood have also lost an influential centre since u16. So dare that in spite of promises of a good year for little Kingswood and the extra incentive of it being their 125th, they will start it as K-day underdogs.
@Vleis: I remember watching that u16 match on KDay in 2017. SAC had their two props out for EP and KC had their star 8th man out for the same. The difference was the SAC pack which dominated, and the KC backline couldn’t get enough ball to their fast wings. Hopefully this year we can front up to that!
If there’s a KDay you want to be at, it’s this years one for the 125
@Beet: I remember back in school when a normal season for non-1stXV teams was around 10/11 games. By the time we got to game 10 (which was usually Graeme), we were all gatvol of rugby and wanted back in the polo pool
Having said that, because the “pressure” was off we played some of the best rugby that last game!
@Beet: @Wyvern: Also, Kingswood’s biggest rivals should have a strong 1st team this year. The Snozzles were very strong at u16 level two years ago, plus they have a lot of players that played 1st team last year (in a reasonably decent season – ranked 30) and they also (like Kingswood) perform better at 1st team level than at age group level.
If I don’t make it down for my first ever K-day this year, I’ll definitely make it down next year when my nephew will (hopefully) be playing in the Snozzle’s 1st team.
@Wyvern: you don’t have to add the word “long” before anything more than 15 games for an SBR season. Trust me we know it’s long
But wow 23
That it’s like French Top 14 in length where one worries that the next season has to kickoff before the current one has concluded.
@Vleis: The KC team this year (on paper at least) will be the strongest we’ve had since 2016. However, i agree with @beet: that depth could be an issue. A few injuries and it could be a very long 23 game season
@Vleis: It should be a good Kingswood team this year but perhaps depth also a worry.
@beet: Yep, it’ll be interesting to see how well the new coach does. The season may also be defined by injuries, or lack thereof, as I don’t think that they will have great depth – the current grade 11s are weak. Kingswood’s 1st team results, on the other hand, are almost always a lot better than their age group results, so I wouldn’t read too much into the big St John’s win at u16 level.
@Vleis: Yeah quite interesting. Both him and Stefan who was at SJC before he moved to HS Florida were coaching the Israeli national team together.
I’m also looking forward to seeing what SJC has in the tank for this season. Will hopefully be good.
@Playa: I think a mixture of coaching the Israeli men’s national team and director of rugby at King David Linksfield.
@Wyvern: Are the fixtures out already?
@Vleis: Where has Kevin moved to?
@Wyvern: St John’s will be an interesting one. In 2017, the u16A team won every match, including a 34 to 0 win over Kingswood. However, most of said players (11, I think) played for a very inexperienced 1st team in 2018, which may have eroded their confidence… or toughened them up for 2019. More importantly, they’ve lost Kevin Musikanth. This might be a massive blow, as the performances of the 1st team during his three years there were five standard deviations from the mean better than the preceding six years.
St Johns and DHS it is!
Saints and Northwood for me please