Fixtures 2020. What to do! What to do! What to do!

Here are a few things that have come up or going down:

1. Hilton and Michaelhouse to play Glenwood?

   The KZN schools fixtures meeting is on Monday 03 June 2019 and all will hopefully be revealed then. For now there is good reason to believe that both Hilton and Michaelhouse will re-establish official rugby ties with Glenwood while Northwood will probably not go the same route.Following a 67-7 defeat in 2014, Hilton went on record with reasons why they were no longer prepared to play rugby against Glenwood.  It effectively meant a second time-out between the two schools. They did not meet on the rugby field between 2007 and 2011. Although there has been no official interschools from 2015 to 2019, the two schools have participated in a  few preseason training/warm-up games during that time. They were meant to schedule a proper Saturday event in 2019 but that plan fell through after Hilton decided they had too many away matches already lined up and did not want to travel down to Glenwood as well.Unlike Hilton, Michaelhouse has never made an official announcement on why they have not played Glenwood since 2015. House follows a different four-term school calendar year to the state schools and like most KZN schools their rugby season finishes at the end of the second term. These two factors rule out several Saturdays each season as possible dates for playing state schools. When asked about the absence of a Glenwood match, House officials have pointed to no free weekend being available for a fixture as the reason for not having a match for three years in a row now.  House’s last encounter with Glenwood resulted in a home win.

   Northwood also ended ties with Glenwood after a heavy defeat in 2015. They had a couple of very rough years after that season but started to turn the ship around in 2018 and as things stand, they have had a respectable 2019 season (very successful by their own standards) and shown a bit of promise in their structures going forward.

2. Boland Landbou vs Outeniqua

   Following the disappointment of their match against Langenhoven Gim being cancelled, Outeniqua were probably both excited and relieved to let the cat out of the bag about prospect of welcoming Boland Landbou as a annual fixture in place of the Oudtshoorn rivalry. Langenhoven Gim are possibly even happier about this new arrangement as 99 times out of  100, they would be on the receiving end of a heavy defeat at the hands of Outeniqua. In terms of top tier strength versus strength, the Farmers against the Kwaggas would be a great match-up and would certainly draw a lot of national interest. The only setback is the ±750km round trip which will obviously be very costly, especially considering that Boland Landbou will be giving up a useful workout against fairly nearby neighbours Stellenberg, in order to accommodate Outeniqua.It’s unfortunate for Stellenberg who saw top flight Boland Landbou as one of the outlets to overcome the restriction imposed on them by their Western Province Premier B League status. The Northern Suburbs school is confined to a league for which they are too good and in a number of cases too big in team numbers, to find worthy competition aside from perhaps Durbanville.

3. Paarl Boys’ High and Affies 100th

   Boishaai are stuck between a Shamrock and a hard place. Talk is that they will be undertaking a rugby tour of Ireland next year. This tour, if confirmed will rule out their participation in both the Noord-Suid Toernooi and Affies’ 100th birthday celebration in the form of the World Schools Festival. The opinion of this website is that as much as Boishaai would love to contribute to Affies’ big party, supporting Jon Phelps and his World Schools Festival would amount to  some sort of betrayal  of those who had worked so hard to help make the Boishaai 150th aka World Schools Festival inaugural tournament successful. Just about everyone who had invested in that 2018 festival, had done so believing that Paarl would be its home base for at least two more years. Phelps obviously decided otherwise. Putting it mildly the feeling towards him amongst those connected to the school is not great. Perhaps arranging to travel to Pretoria for an interschools meeting against Affies in 2020 would more than make up for missing their 100th. It would be an awesome day. But finding a suitable date might not realistic. It must be noted that in the past Affies have been very supportive of other rugby powerhouse schools when it was their turn to mark special occasions.