April 2024Boland Landbou will be the first to admit that their defensive second half performance against Paarl Gim was just not good enough; especially considering that BL are still a potential Top 10 ranked team this year. They imploded on the Jan Kriel field, conceding 27-5 in the second half after a respectable first half last Saturday.
This weekend they are on the road again. The venue is the famous Piley Rees Field. The opponents are the one and only numberless-jerseyed Platinum Blues aka Bishops.
BL’s tight-five should be key to ensuring BL have a major say in proceedings. If so their loosies and backline should be able to capitalise on the stable frontfoot possession.
After a series of really good seasons, of which arguably the best two were cut short by Covid, and a praise-worthy start to 2023, it has been a downward trending Bishops 1st XV. For 2024 they are limited in attacking weapons and not strong enough up front to contain an aggressive pack like that of BL. They will have to dig very deep to come out with a respectable result.
The cameras have also been switched off. Very annoying but maybe in the long run the educators who pushed for this will be proven right by putting sports into perspective in the education system.
| TEAM | BISHOPS | TEAM | BOLAND LANDBOU | ||
| 1 | Gareth McKinon | 1 | Derik du Preez | ||
| 2 | Jack Campbell | 2 | Tihaan van Zyl | u18 | |
| 3 | Yusuf Ahmed | 3 | Derico Mesina | u17 | |
| 4 | Alex Smith | 4 | Kody Nel | u17 | |
| 5 | Nic Reid | 5 | Ruan Viviers | u18 | |
| 6 | James le Feuvre | 6 | Hans Verster | u18 | |
| 7 | Daniel vd Heever | 7 | Karst Smuts | u19 | |
| 8 | Aza Gabada | 8 | Alco Bindemann | u18 | |
| 9 | Kashief Gabada | 9 | Jayden Brits | u17 | |
| 10 | Lucca Mynhardt | 10 | Retagan van Rooi | u18 | |
| 11 | Jordan Petersen | 11 | Sydney Blaauw | ||
| 12 | Iviwe Dadamasi | 12 | Juan Swart | u18 | |
| 13 | Alex Newton | 13 | Dante Christians | u17 | |
| 14 | Cole Robyntjies | 14 | Wehan Lume | u18 | |
| 15 | Wa-keem Fortuin | 15 | Lyle Lewis | u18 | |
| Coach | WES CHETTY | Coach | JOHAN VAN ROOYEN |
@gimmie (Comment #3)
The Bishops headmaster is the former Pretoria BH headmaster. He didn’t seem to favour sports bursaries while he was at Boys High and he might feel that the Bishops image should be defined by rugby success for 6 months of the year.
Perhaps if Bishops finish bottom of the SS4 and the WPPL some OD members will start to get very vocal and that may contribute towards a turnaround in Bishops fortunes beginning with u14A for next year.
Landbou should win easily Beet, as you know Bishops have very little talent this year…very sad to see this famous rugby school in such a poor state…fortunately they do have some very competent coaches in Robbie Fleck and Nes Chetty who I am sure will right the ship at some stage
Would be nice to get feedback on how the BL line gels this week. After Gim, defensive press would surely have been addressed. Also felt that the new 13 as talented as he is, needs to be challenging the gainline more, probably on the outside channel based on his physique. Also Kody Nel was coming on nicely before the speed hump last weekend. Would be good to get him into more prominent mode
Landbou by 10+