Helpmekaar travels to Michaelhouse

On Saturday 11 March 2023, Braamfontein’s Helpmekaar, the oldest Afrikaans private in the land travels to Balgowan to face Michaelhouse, the second most expensive private on record, in a much anticipated clash.

The “Bruinreuse” will be hoping to bound back after a season opening home defeat of 16-25 at the hands of Welkom Gim.

Even though there were some thumbs up aspect to the hosts’ play, particularly the scrumming, the overall performance was sluggish with areas such as the backline play in seriously need of more cohesion and urgency. By comparison Gim looked a lot sharper with ball-in-hand and took their limited attacking opportunities well.

The backdrop to the match was that like numerous other Noordvaal schools, Helpies take the summer sport athletics programme very seriously and with the big Interhigh athletics meet having taken place on Wednesday during the week, it meant that the Thursday, just two days before the match, was the first opportunity for a full practice.

Now having that first match under the belt will be an advantage, particularly for match legs, heading into a game against a strong House team, who officially ended their summer sport this past Saturday, making this outing their first official match of the season.

Apart from only having a week to prepare, Michaelhouse has another major challenge at the start of the season. They are set to participate in the World Rugby backed Bicentenary International Schools u18s Sevens Tournament on Saturday 25th to Sunday 26th March 2023 at Rugby School in the UK. This means numerous rugby boys have been preparing to meet the lighter weight physical requirements of Sevens game as opposed to preparing for a Fifteens campaign. It does not get easier after the tour either, because there will also only be a few days between arriving back in South Africa and taking part in the Easter Festival at St Stithians, starting on Thursday o6 April.

Rugby playing schools from countries around the world including Australia, Canada, Chile, England, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales will be taking part in the Sevens tournament as part of rugby’s 200th birthday celebration.

For the match this Saturday, the mouthwatering battle should be between the backrows where the Helpies loosies Zack Smit and Michael McDonald are expected to backup titanic Christiaan Steyn against House’s formidable metre-making duo of Dwayne Mlaba and Fortune Mpofu, ably assisted by grafter Tristan Arde.

The step up to the challenges are the frontrow, where House will be underdogs against Helpies power , particularly if highly rated hooker Ruan Welman makes a return to play alongside experienced  top rated Boela de Wet and possibly big Jandre Labuschagne, who can add his considerable bulk to the secondrow as well. House could go with Aphiwe Shelembe, Thabo Njapha and big Donovan van Staden.

On the flipside, Helpies need much more from their centre combination where strong Rynhardt van der Linden and youngster Tiaan le Roux did duty against Welkom Gim. Their challenge will be immense. Campbell Ridl is an SA Schools quality outside centre and his u17 midfield partner likely to be Tom Baguley is one to watch. The two Midlands boys could develop into a deadly combination this season.