There are 2 Grogper Cup games on this weekend. With Gauteng leading 6-3, KZN cannot afford anymore slip ups. KZN has to win the remaining 4 games to clinch a title in which the chase has been made a lot more difficult by the improvement in form of St Alban’s as well as the struggles of St Charles and DHS who lost to St David’s and Parktown respectively along the way.
The Grogper Cup is now so huge that it is being broadcast on TV. Jokes. The Premier Interschools sponsorship means that Maritzburg College versus King Edward VII School (KES) is going to be shown on Supersport 1 on Saturday at 14:55. Results have not gone KES’s way this season. The defeat that grabbed everyone’s attention was a lost to Trintyhouse (25-34) . However in recent weeks they have run Jeppe (12-15) and Westville (16-22), two very good teams fairly close, so things are looking up for KES. Nevertheless home field advantage makes College favourites. The Red, Black, White has been a touch bit unpredictable though so this match is by no means a done deal. Whenever College and KES meet, a focal point for the KZN school is the lineouts which seem to have let them down more often in this fixture than any other in recent seasons. With lessons learnt against Paul Roos at Wildeklawer, viewers should expect to see a more creative approach at lineout time by College.
In the other Grogper Cup match St Stithian’s host Kearsney. Based on Saints’ recent result against Pretoria Boys High (0-76), the hosts have a lot of improving to do if they are to challenge the highly ranked Kearsney side. Kearsney’s didn’t play last weekend due to the Westville’s main field being waterlogged. During the week they did see 13 players progress to final KZN under-18 trials, providing a good indication of their strength this season.
| DATE | SCHOOL | SCHOOL | GP | KN | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16/03/13 | St Davids | 17 | 6 | St Charles | 1 | |
| 01/04/13 | St Albans | 26 | 25 | Hilton | 1 | |
| 13/04/13 | Pretoria BH | 25 | 23 | M. College | 1 | |
| 13/04/13 | Jeppe | 33 | 24 | Northwood | 1 | |
| 15/04/13 | Northwood | 15 | 11 | St Benedicts | 1 | |
| 20/04/13 | Westville | 22 | 17 | Pretoria BH | 1 | |
| 04/05/13 | KES | 16 | 22 | Westville | 1 | |
| 04/05/13 | Parktown | 33 | 5 | DHS | 1 | |
| 11/05/13 | St Charles | 16 | 37 | St Albans | 1 | |
| 18/05/13 | M. College | 30 | 8 | KES | 1 | |
| 18/05/13 | St Stithians | 0 | 62 | Kearsney | 1 | |
| 25/05/13 | St Johns | Michaelhouse | ||||
| 27/07/13 | M. College | Pretoria BH | ||||
| TOTAL | 6 | 5 |
College and KES from last Saturday
College vs Michaelhouse
Conditions did not allow for a pretty game but there were attempts to spread the ball. College dominated possession and territory but the College kicker did not have his kicking boots on at all. He hit the posts right in front and pushed another simple penalty wide. No excuses as the Michaelhouse kicker got 3 out of 3. College got the first try after 10 minutes of pressure and continued from there. College created far more opportunities and were unlucky not get 2 more tries. The backs found it impossible to run on or around the cricket pitch on Goldstones and this caused mistakes. At one stage MHS were in the hunt at 18-9 but this was solely because of the conditions and some wrong decisions by College wanting to play in their own half. College dominated their forwards and the hits caused MHS to make mistakes of their own.
From the Westville website: Westville vs KES
The first half belonged to KES with their fullback Fuller kicking two penalties. Playing with a breeze behind their backs, KES enjoyed territorial advantage by pinning the KZN team deep into their half and forcing them to kick out. With their lineout working perfectly, the home team launched multiple attacks but were met with a well organised and resolute defence. When Westville did venture into KES’s half, the continuity of their attack was let down by basic errors. Flyhalf Reece McHardy did cross the whitewash after a well work passage of play on the blindside but the ref ruled the final pass forward to deny the visitors any points and they went into the break 6 points down.
The second half started with Westville in further trouble when KES finally breached their defence to score a fine try through prop Ameer Williams. Although Fuller was unable to convert, the home team now enjoyed a handy 11 point lead.
Stung by the KES try, the visitors galvanised themselves into action and winger Keegan Paverd and centre Brad Ellse both came close to scoring. Ellse had actually broken clear but as he was about to score, bizarrely ran into the KES physio who was treating an injured player. The ref ruled an attacking scrum to Westville and from this set piece, McHardy exploited the short side to open Westville’s account. Moments later Ellse read the KES attack and intercepted to score a 50m try. Fullback Snyman converted to give Westville a slender one point lead going into the final quarter on the match.
Paverd got Westville’s try third from a well worked move off an attacking scrum deep in the KES 22m area, and with the visitors now in ascendancy, the home team’s lineout began to falter giving Westville territorial advantage. Snyman kicked a penalty to stretch the lead to 11 points but the KES team refused to lie down and fought back hard to score a try through lock De Laat on the final whistle to close the score to 22 – 16 to the visitors.
It seems the Sharks are producing some very good 8th men. Schramm with another 2 tries this weekend, I know it is not eveything, but he is far and away the leading try scorer for Kearsney! Glammer boy or knows where to be…
The college 14 looks deadly, huge pace!!! Also impressed with their hooker, has he made final trials – anyone know?
Looks like this will go down to the wire
@Gungets Tuft:
Just watched the College game . Good performance by College and eish that Ngcobo wing can motor. He and the GWD Ngcobo might as well be the KZN wingers. Magical stuff there !!
Daryn Goodson didn’t have his best game ever but still played relatively well. He’s defenitely a much better player than todays performance.
Impressed by Marcel too. Good stuff and that Cappie of yours is a definite good one ! Methinks College will have one of their best years next year. Also impressed by Mazwi, must be playing really well to keep the KZN U18A hooker in the 2nd side
@Grasshopper: ey ey, easy on the jabs there
@Gungets Tuft: if wasn’t for the Cape’s daft early kick offs I would have been fine, I mean who watches 1st team rugby at 11.30am, that is for the Under15a’s….
@Grasshopper: Poor excuse, baby’s birthday. What’s wrong with you man, throwing caution the the ….. er …. winds any time between June and September. A calculating man would realise that it is going to cause a conflict of interest between March and June. Think before you slink bru
@Grasshopper:
It should be one !
But methinks Goodson has got Coetzees number. Outplayed him time and time again
@Grasshopper: haha, im sure youre going to ship off your laaitie to Glenwood. Apparently the game was immensely tight until the last 15min when Bosch scored 4 quick tries. Hence me asking you what happened. At the end of the day, a babies birthday is more important
@Gungets Tuft: yeah maybe, but Coetzee is playing like a machine too so the No8 jersey in 2014 will be a big battle. Coetzee scored a hattrick today against DHS. Was impressed with your structure today, nothing flashy just doing the basics properly. Lineouts started badly but the variations helped after that. No tall timber there at all…
@Grasshopper: Fair enough summary of the match. If I was a KES forward on the bus going back I might consider handing out a good old fashioned Borseling (spelling ) to the forwards. Thought the forwards were good value but the backs were butterfingered. College defense was very good.
You haven’t seen close to the best of Goodson but I cannot compare, haven’t seen Schramm play.
@CapeMan: sorry mate, was not able to make it in the end, had a baby birthday party to go to, the joys of parenthood haha! Gim must have been in 3rd gear against Bishops….
@Grasshopper: what the hell happened in the last 15min against Bosch??
So KZN get another 2 points via Kearsney and College wins. KES were competitive in the pack but had nothing much out wide bar Ramboea. Thought the KES front row was pretty good and locks not bad, especially in the line-out. Both sides were not amazing but College just made less mistakes and took their opportunities. Goodsen was good, I see what other bloggers see in him, but definitely not as good as Schramm yet. Next week on Goldstones is going to be a cracker!
@Gungets Tuft: Nice one Gungets. Well done KES! It makes me proud when our schools behave in such a fashion…even though KES are the enemy!
And a note to Roger – once again your boys are living up to the KES reputation of producing fine young gentlemen.
Had a nightmare trip from PMB to Durban, accident closed the N3 and it took 2 1/2 hours to get to Durbs via the back roads, but the okes took it in their stride even after a 7 hour bus trip. Slotted in at our place as if they visited every day.
All boys from your U15 hockey sides, everyone can take a bow, it’s why I love hosting the boys from KES.
@GreenBlooded:
@NW_Knight: Nope – reffing tomorrow boet. How is that inbound tour coming along?
@Greenblooded: Too many beers there tonight
@Grasshopper: Lucky you didn’t name some of the Northwood boys there – you would have needed to invoke the Windows special character set for some of them.
@Woltrui: What about it? Glenwood is not semi private, it’s gov funded with fees helping to pay the salaries of a few more teachers as the gov funds are not enough. Also, 100% of lessons, barring Afrikaans of course, are taught and written in English. I refer you to a few of the other schools players;
Westville
Mzamo Majola
Alex Vorster
Andre de la Rey
Wieham Prinsloo
Kyle Lubbe
Louis Snyman
James Erasmus
Sound English to you?
Kearsney
Tijde Visser
Mthhunzi Moloi
Mitch du Toit
Daniel Du Preez
Jean-Luc Du Preez
Alex Albertse
Thuthu Ndlovu
Alex Luyt
Zander Rossouw
Langa Hlongwane
Ryan van der Waal
Sound English to you?
Maritzburg College
Tiaan Steyn
Vuyo Khatinde
Njabulo Gumede
Wian Jacobs
Seko Buthelezi
Jacques Conradie
Lucas Booysen
Jordan Koekemoer
Banele Ngwenya
Marcel Coetzee
Lindo Ngcobo
Again, English to you?
You see the surname means nothing these days as the boys are all just South African, no prejudice based on language, colour, religion etc. Glenwood boys are just Glenwood boys, and the same for every other school……what makes Glenwood an English school is the fact that lessons and exams are in English, clear enough….
@Grasshopper: Hopper although the Beast is an Ugly Mother he has got a point. I refer you to the “fixtures 18 May 2013” thread.
@Tjoppa: To be honest Beast and Vleis really don’t know much about Glenwood, Vleis didn’t even know where is was. But honestly the home language/2st language split is probably 60% English, 20% Zulu, 10% Xhosa and 10% Afrikaans, so about 750 English, 250 Zulu, 125 Xhosa and 125 Afrikaans. it just so happens to be that most of our A teams have mostly Afrikaans and Zulu/Xhosa boys because most of them are boarders and have nothing else to do but play touch and train in the gym. I can assure you Glenwood is an English medium school. Ask the same question to Westville, DHS, Northwood and College and they will have similar ratios…….just saying. I wonder how many KES boys are Sotho, Zulu, Xhosa or any other language…
@Grasshopper: Regarding Glenwood’s inclusion two quotes from (a) Vleis “Hoerskool Glenwood will be way too strong for Dale High Schoo” and (b)The Beast “Glenwood High School is an English semi-private high school for Afrikaans, xhosa and Zulu boys located in Glenwood, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa” it is clear that the Glenwood is not an English High School at the most an English speaking high school. Hence your application is turned down.
Regarding your beaches and bikinis no arguing from me. But at my age a visit to those facilities can only be fatal.
@Vleis: It would be even worse if you unleashed your Afrikaaners on ours
@Grasshopper: Fair enough.
To be honest, I think that the Natal schools (overall) are stronger than the Gauteng schools if they are limited to English schools only. Maybe not by a lot, but they are stronger…which is why it would be nice for Gauteng to take the Grogper this year. That said, if the Gauteng Afrikaans schools were included then it would be a very, very different story.
@Amalekite: That also yes but mostly in Hillbrow. It comes at a prize though.
@Vleis: all my post are said in jest too, sometimes writing does not put this across. The Grogper was named after the ‘feud’ between Roger and I, hence a combined Grasshopper and Roger name. Surely the cup should include the side I support….a proper Grogper cup should be started as the provinces schools are obviously close in strength….
@Grasshopper: About half of the Gauteng schools are second tier, not just one! FYI – St Charles is very similar in size to St Albans – the former has 500 boys, of which 190 are boarders, while the latter has 530 boys, of which some 250 are boarders.
You take life too seriously. If you have a son that plays rugby for GW, you will have a heart attack before he gets to form 3!
8) Said in jest Grassy…said in jest.
@Gungets Tuft: I think you can open those eyes now – just watch Pedantic making yards on the inside. For me – my eyes are so closed a can occassionally feel the sled hitting me in the @r$e.
3rd prize is a trip to any dam within a 50km radius of Bryanston in a new Toyota Fortuner towing a jet ski on the weekend to sit on the bank like its a beach and tan some sjops on the braai. The Grogper is flawed without Glenwood one of the top 4 English schools in KZN, surely 2nd tier results should not count too. Come on St Charles are ranked about 12th in KZN English schools….
@Vleis: Nicely put
@Amalekite:
First prize is a weekend in Gauteng and 2nd prize is a week in Gauteng!
@Tjoppa: Hopefully I’m wrong coz the prize sucks !
@Amalekite: And with that answer you win a three day pass to visit Gauteng to see why we always win.
College to beat KES
Kearsney to beat Saints
St Johns to beat House ( hate to say it )
PBHS to beat College ( hope I’m wrong )
Gauteng to win Grogper Cup
@Gungets Tuft:
@Woltrui: Based on form and home-ground advantage, I agree that SJC should pip House; however, both SJC and Saints seem to have a mental block against the Natal schools. Maybe this time?
@Woltrui: ou Wollie, eeisch bru. Das mangy mutt has had his eyes closed for weeks, all that snow and stuff flying up from Archie, Slammer, Cynds has been most humiliating, I started to feel like the hubble telescope flying through the milky way. Took your advice, clamped the tail down over the starfish, head down and forced it (sounds like my golf!!) and siedaar, momentary success.
Butt {snigger}, now that you have asked, watch what happens. I liked flying under the radar daarso, like in the shadow of Uranus, gnome sane?
Pride comes before a stumble and an icicle up the nostril …… 8)
@Vleis: Me think St Johns is going win House
@Gungets Tuft: It is eight away games for Natal and six away for Gauteng, as Saints (the venue where St Alban’s beat Hilton) is most certainly not home for St Alban’s…of that I can assure you.
Anyway, I don’t think that it will come down to a draw, but the Grogper Cup is definitely going down to the wire, as my predictions for the remaining matches are:
– M College v KES = 90% chance of a win for Natal.
– Saints v Kearsney = 99.9% chance of win for Natal – I give Saints a 0.1% chance, rather than 0%, as six CW trial players (including the star Innocent Radebe) will be back after missing the game v PBHS last week.
– St Johns v House = 70% chance of a win for Natal.
– M College v PBHS = 55% chance of a win for Natal.
So, it looks like it will all come down to the final game between MC and PBHS, which should also be the most tightly contested game of the last four. No doubt, you will be there Gungets?
@Gungets Tuft: Good morning Mr Tufts. I don’t think a draw is on the cards. The Grogper Cup is in the bag. In the Northvaal bag. Hope Roger has a nice place to exhibit the cup, maybe in the hallowed halls of KES?
By the way. What happened to the dog which were mushing over the tundra? The one with the stars in its eyes
There needs to be a decision on the possibility of a draw. In that case KZN should take the trophy on the Home/Away rule. KZN will have played 8 out of 13 games away.