The four well-known Cape Town Southern Suburbs schools will square off over the next three weekends in what promises to provide high entertaining encounters.
Bishops somehow got the jump on their rivals and did ever so well to claim a Triple Crown. That said and done, surely given the intensity of these rivalries, no one is going to bet on the Platinum Blues going on to claim another three wins and with it the Grand Slam! That would be insane if they could get it right in a highly competitive season like this.
On paper Wynberg has a great team this year and they desperately need something big to show for it now. These next two weekends are season definers for them bur the will have to do it without inspirational leader Xola Nyali who is on SA u18 international duty. Knock over Bishops on the Piley Rees and Bosch on Hawthornden, and the season will be deemed a success but defeats in either one of those games, might leave the jury out to decide on whether or not they underachieved in 2023.
For Rondebosch rugby related matters off the field have been a bit of a nightmare of late. On the field they will be looking to snap a four-match losing streak when they host SACS on the Tinkie Heyns Field. They are a tough and gutsy team with everything to play for these next few weekends. They have shown enough spirit to come out on top in the SS4 this year.
SACS are the only school of the four without a win in the Southern Suburbs this season. They are not the sort of team to take lightly and with only one win registered against a non- Western Province B-league school this season, the scalp of any of their three biggest opponents during August will count as their main victory of 2023.
Nailbiter of a win for Rondebosch, I think Wynberg is out, and now it is between Bishops and Rondebosch…
@BoschBoy. I watched the recorded game on SS Schools. The recording missed the kickoff but captured the two opening tries from SACS. The quality was poor. I looked now and could not find it. I also checked my web history, and clicked on the link I watched the game on, and it took me to SS Schools but with the notice that it could not find the recording. So it seems to have been removed.
@Toffee: Hey bud, question, how did you watch the Bosch-SACS game? Unfortunately for me the streaming really failed live, but it was rectified for the last 15mins. Is the recording of the game up somewhere? Checked SS schools but not finding anything… :/
@yesnomaybe
Thanks for clearing that up, makes sense.
@Toffee:
With regards to the linesman call at the Bish/Berg match, there was no chirping, the ref just misunderstood the linesman, so he initially gave the penalty to Bishops but when the linesman called him again it was changed to the correct decision. The resultant lineout was lost anyway so no damage caused. The problem for Bishops was that their forwards had no answer to the Berg maul & their only option was to sack it, unfortunately for them, that didnt always come off so when Berg got momentum they would ultimately concede a penalty.The other ‘controversial’ decision depending on who u support was the triple movement of the Bishops player who happened to score the ‘try” right in front of the Berg coaches who were not happy at all. Lastly the 2nd half was approx 45 mins long as ref stopped the clock on every stoppage. Besides that & after speaking to a few players the ref communicated very well to both sides so they knew where they stood at all times. Match was played in very good spirit & in general the ref controlled the match well. Unfortunately in any match there is always 1 or 2 calls that could go either way, however, there is no doubt that Wynberg deserved the win & threw away a number of guiltedged chances to put the game to bed earlier in the contest.
@ Bosch. It looked like both SACS and Bosch were missing key players. I know SACS were missing a wing (Benade who I think is a fantastic player), a lock and their captain/prop. Also their 8th man from earlier in the season has been absent. Bosch also seemed to be missing a few players from what I could remember. I think Wynberg will win but derbies are unpredictable. Berg have a strong pack of forwards and some talented quick backs. Having not completed the Paul Roos game (called off twice) after a bye, the youngsters were hungry to play against Bishops and hopefully that carries to this week.
Molyneux of Bosch is such a classy player. He was my MOTM.
@Beet. I was seated just behind the Bishops coaches (I know two of them well) and I could sense they were a bit frustrated. I could not see the Wynberg coaches. There were two incidents I noticed, one when Wynberg scored a try and the Bishops coaches complained it was obstruction (I did not notice the obstruction but it may have happened). The other was in the last 10/15 minutes where the linesman intervened and spoke to the referee and Bishops were awarded a penalty and then the ref reversed the decision straight away – I can only think there was some chirping. It was too far away for me. Wynberg then kicked to the corner and it was a massive advantage. Wynberg still deserved the win imho. Once of the Bishops tries came from an interception on their tryline as Wynberg were pushing to score. While it took skill to convert the interception to a try on the other side of the field, they are massive moments in a game.
I understand that at the Rondebosch game they also had a foreign referee. I watched that game via a recording of the streaming and he seemed to struggle.
@Toffee: Thanks for the feedback.
I heard there was a Canadian referee in charge of the Bishops-Berg 1st XV game and that he made a few costly decisions due to a lack of experience at that level.
@Toffee: Thanks for the insight here. Such a pity the game wasn’t streamed, would’ve loved to watch it.
That’s a really good return (Pl 16, W3, L1) for an SS derby – reminiscent of how Winelands schools perform against the SS.
How you feeling for the Bosch game on Saturday? It’s really set up very nicely and should be a cracking game.
Sorry the second team result was 21-21 not 17-17.
Had the pleasure of watching a few of the games. The Wynberg first team were good value for their win and perhaps should have won by more. The Wynberg forwards were outstanding. I thought it was a high quality game and both sides played good 15 man rugby. The Wynberg under 14a won in the last moments of the game. The two sides are very evenly matched and it will be interesting to watch how they develop over the age groups. The game of the day for me was the second team game, which resulted in a 17-17 draw. Bishops have a well coached and talented second side. They won the previous term fixture 43-12 and at one stage were leading 21-7.
Overall a good day for Wynberg. Played 16, won 13, drew two and lost 1.
@Kantman: I was expecting a close encounter, but yeah glad got over the line in the end. The stream for the game didn’t work unfortunately, but a friend of mine was there – SACS raced into a 15-0 lead after like 12mins, but Bosch gradually took control of proceedings from there apparently. Nice comeback win.
Great win for Berg against Bishops, though. I had a feeling they’d pull it off, they got unlucky with some fixtures in the first term, were due a bit of luck to go their way. Sets it up for a cracker next weekend!
@BoschBoy: Close win for Bosch!
I think its very cool that they have bookended their seasons into blocks of Southern Suburb derbies … I’m hoping SACS can get a few wins over their local rivals. They had a good win over Graeme early in the season. Interesting that they also play Belville twice?
I’m battling to understand that top log / points allocations…4 for a win, 2 for a narrow loss, 6 for a larger win ??
@Kantman: @Kantman: I expect you’re right, also foresee some reverse results.
It’s very close between Bishops, Bosch and Berg this year, any of these results could go either way. And SACS, although results haven’t shown it, have steadily improved and can’t be underestimated.
Sets it up for an interesting finish to the season.
I expect there may be a couple of reversals of results