Paul Roos are gearing up to take on the Northern Hemisphere winter conditions complete with potentially tricky to adapt to surfaces, during the December 2023 school holidays, when they travel to Ireland for 11 days with a 38-player squad.
This is smart planning. They will face four Irish teams in-season which will hopefully make them more formidable:
Terenure College
Colaiste Iognaid (The Jes)
Shannon
Another (Presentation College is unavailable due to other commitments)
Grey College received a major head start on their main rivals for top honours, during the 2023 regular season by offering their u17 group excellent exposure against strong teams at the World Schools Festival in Thailand during December 2022. Apart from the experience gained, the coaching staff were able to take full advantage of the opportunity via the intel they gained from the matches.
Now Paul Roos can expect something along the same lines, as they build team energy, cohesion and planning in the lead up to what could and should be an outstanding season for the boys from Stellenbosch in the Winelands. Eight boys who did regular duty for the 1st XV during the 2023 season are set to return in 2024.
The Maroon Machines will tour Ireland without their SA Schools forward and headboy-elect Riley Norton. The 2m giant will instead be representing his cricket province at Coke Week in Makhanda (Grahamstown). He has been included in the wider group from which the u19 Cricket World Cup 15-player team will be selected for the tournament in Sri Lankan in January 2024. If picked, it would make the talented u17, a double international player for his country and quite possibly the youngest of a very select group to achieve this feat.
Tour details:
https://paulroos.co.za/files/2023/02/Paul-Roos-Ireland-Dec-2023-8-nights-program.pdf
Munster CC 19-31 PRG
@Smallies (Comment #5)
Ek stem nie saam nie. So n toer kan nie in geld waarde gemeet word nie. Nie net gaan die spelers waardevolle rugby ondervinding opdoen nie maar is dit vir hulle lewenservaring wat hul nooit sal vergeet nie.
PRG het in die verlede die spelers gehelp met fondsinsameling om die koste laag te hou.
Al die wedstyde is op SS School.
https://live.supersportschools.com/events/657872f4b5221d1c25f70580/
Match 3
PRG 27-10 Uni Cork College
Match 2 results
Won 27-3 vs Wallace High
Won 12-5 vs Methody High
Paul Roos won a tight game against Terenure today, weather not great and it took a while for the maroon machine to get going, but they got the job done. This Saturday I believe they are coming north to play Wallace High School and Methodist College Belfast. This season these two schools would probably rank 4th and 5th in Ulster schools rankings, I expect both Paul Roos teams to win and the U17 A team playing Wallace I think will win well, 40 points wouldn’t surprise me. I intend to watch the games this Saturday and ill post up how it goes
Ek is n groot voorstaander van die tipe u 17 games ,maar skole sal moet oppas dat die nie n vrek duur oefening raak nie ,so n toer kan maklik n ouer by die 70k kos en dan is sakgeld nog nie ingereken nie.
n lekker plaaslike 017 toernooi kan dalk die beursie minder seer maak en sommer goeie blootstelling wees vir die seuns
@IrishGimmie (Comment #3)
Thank you for the input.
This tour is proving to be a very hard one to finalise matches. The Irish teams are at a busy point in their season and most are committed. St Michaels are at the WSF in Thailand.
Of the opponents originally listed, two have claimed that they did not commit to matches and another, Shannon is too weak for PRG.
So it seems like Presentation College and The Jes are out for sure. In their place are Muster u18 and maybe NAAS to join Tenenure.
But either way it must be crazy stressful to try arrange and finalise matches so close to departing on an overseas tour.
Terenure are a good side this year but not a great schedule apart from that which is a shame. Paul Roos will win their games very easily, Blackrock, St Michaels have very tight fixture lists around that time PR are touring but they would have provided better opposition for sure.
@Kaya 85 (Comment #1)
100% agreed.
I am told the tree (3) main schools in Ireland are :
Blackrock
St Michael’s
Gonzaga
Hopefully the opportunity presents itself for them to play at least two of the tree.
Or even if PRG could play the Muster and Leinster u19 club sides.
But I’m 100% sure that it will be a great experience either way.
FANTASTIC