The well-organised St Johns tournament over Easter will bring together two different tiers of rugby schools. On the one extreme there will be national powerhouses in form of Paarl Boys High, Paul Roos and Waterkloof, who will be backed up by formidable teams such as Pretoria Boys High, Jeppe and Nelspruit. The other group consists of five traditional SA rugby schools who are capable of producing surprise package teams but generally not regarded as national top 50 outfits. There is also a touring team from Sydney, Australia – Scots College – an old independent school with a decent number of students. The abilities of touring schools have proven to be extremely unpredictable in the past but they generally struggle to keep up with the leading SA rugby schools.
Fixtures
| TIME | DAY | DATE | SCHOOL | SCHOOL | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11h00 | Thu | 17/04/2014 | St Charles | 0 | 34 | HJS Paarl BH |
| 12h15 | Thu | 17/04/2014 | Paul Roos | 80 | 7 | St John’s (Harare) |
| 13h30 | Thu | 17/04/2014 | Waterkloof | 45 | 19 | Klein Nederburg |
| 15h30 | Thu | 17/04/2014 | Pretoria BH | 12 | 24 | Scots College (Aus) |
| 16h45 | Thu | 17/04/2014 | Jeppe | 28 | 0 | Noordheuwel |
| 18h45 | Thu | 17/04/2014 | St John’s | 20 | 29 | Nelspruit |
| 08h45 | Sat | 19/04/2014 | Noordheuwel | 7 | 26 | Klein Nederburg |
| 10h00 | Sat | 19/04/2014 | St Charles | 29 | 7 | St John’s (Harare) |
| 11h15 | Sat | 19/04/2014 | Nelspruit | 13 | 5 | Pretoria BH |
| 13h30 | Sat | 19/04/2014 | St John’s | 14 | 41 | Scots College (Aus) |
| 14h45 | Sat | 19/04/2014 | HJS Paarl BH | 12 | 5 | Jeppe |
| 16h00 | Sat | 19/04/2014 | Paul Roos | 13 | 19 | Waterkloof |
| 09h00 | Mon | 21/04/2014 | Klein Nederburg | 46 | 17 | St John’s (Harare) |
| 10h15 | Mon | 21/04/2014 | Noordheuwel | 15 | 55 | Waterkloof |
| 11h30 | Mon | 21/04/2014 | Scots College (Aus) | 5 | 21 | Jeppe |
| 13h30 | Mon | 21/04/2014 | St John’s | 26 | 13 | St Charles |
| 14h45 | Mon | 21/04/2014 | Paul Roos | 15 | 10 | Nelspruit |
| 16h00 | Mon | 21/04/2014 | HJS Paarl BH | 45 | 14 | Pretoria BH |
@Woltrui: I think tomorrow will be much better.
The St John’s festival organisers seems to make the same mistake as the KES organisers did in 2013. Jees, don’t they follow schoolboy rugby? Either they are totally naive or they have a lack of respect for the quality of rugby that teams like Paul Roos, Bois High and Kloof produce. Motivated and full strenght Bois High and Kloof teams could also have put run away scores on against their “smaller” oposition. What is the point in that. Not nice for the schools involved. Not nice for the spectators. That said the Kloof Paul Roos fixture on Saturday should be a humdinger.
@Andre T: Sien ons mekaar dan Saterdag by st Johns?
@tornado: The problem is that hot shot slides from the UK have attended the St John’s festival in the past few years and got massive hidings from Paarl Boys (75 – 0, etc), so I suppose that the organisers decided to give the current touring side a break. Ironically, it seems like the current side might have provided Paarl with a half decent game …but there you go.
@Rucker: They will be unbeaten just hope they will play better teams next time
@Rucker: 24-12, isn’t exactly a thumping! 12 points difference is nothing in the modern game. Are they playing any Top10 sides on the tour?
The Scots College thumped Pretoria Boys High 24 – 12. Lots of handling errors by Scots but they ran everything and did not take one penalty opportunity. Scots looked very dangerous each time they had possession. They look like they will go unbeaten at St Johns Festival.
Anyone have news on the PBHS / Scotts game?
@Crash Ball: 35 to 0.
@BoishaaiPa: Do u have the full time score for st charles vs boys high??
@BoishaaiPa: And full time??
75-7
The could at least had a Waterkloof vs Boishaai match as well…and Paul Roos against either PBHS or Jeppe for the 1st day…
Just heard a huge roar here from Sandton City…….the Zimbabweans must have scored
68-7, well done St Johns for showing fighting spirit!
@Grasshopper: I’m in JHB today and because of all the mismatches I’m only watching the Menlo vs Grey PE game . Actually sad. The organisers seem to have no clue about schools’ strengths
63-0 after 41 mins! The poor St Johns Zim boys must be praying for the pain to end…..must be just standing behind the posts all game…
@Andre T: 56-0 and 3mins into 2nd half, PRG could be going for 100! What is learnt by either team in this mismatch…?
Its murder at St Johns..Paul Roos scoring at will it seems. Organizers should come and ask us who should play each other because this does nobody any good!…
Seems SACS are going to battle in the Cape league this year, in for a pounding against Wynberg, Bosch and Bishops in the Southern Suburbs….let alone the Winelands teams…
@Vleis: Thats right..they “beat” DHS 24-14…
Paul Roos game should be stopped.
@Vleis: Yep, SACS beat DHS 24-14…
well – Hilton -St Stithians on Sat should be a good match up because they seem to be both struggling this year
@BoishaaiPa: I think that SACS beat one of the Durban schools at the Grey festival, but I stand corrected.
@BoishaaiPa: Hilton only beat St Charles 22-21, so shows where they sit this season….
@BoishaaiPa: Yep, but Hilton are weak this year so any victory for them is good!
@Grasshopper: I dont think SACS has won anything so far this year..maybe the practise game against their seccies, but that result is in doubt as well!
@BoishaaiPa: Well done to Boishaai beating St Charles and good luck in Japan, Sean knows it well…
@Vleis: Well, the point is over the past 15 years, excluding ‘flash in the pan’ years the top 10 are as I mentioned, maybe in a different order. St Charles are not Top 10. Yes, we lost to George Campbell illustrating that last year was inconsistent which was expected due to the side being majority grade 11. Remember these upsets happen eg KES losing to Trinityhouse….bizarre, but that is what makes schoolboy rugby great. Boishaai beat St Charles 35-0, so close to the 40 I predicted. Clifton gave DHS a run for their money so will easily do the same to St Charles…
@Grasshopper: Relax boet sheesh….You really should learn how to take a bit of banter and not get yourself all worked up!….
@Grasshopper: You make me laugh. I was just illustrating a point re the futility of going back three years (let alone 15 years
) when assessing a team’s current strength. I used your Alma Mater to reinforce the point with a bit more vigour!
As such, it really wasn’t necessary for you to launch into a summary of Glenwood’s 2013 season. That said, I notice with interest that you neglected to include Glenwood’s loss to George Campbell.
I doubt that Clifton will beat St Charles this year, let alone “for sure”…but let’s wait and see.
Well done to Hilton beating SACS 24-23! Awesome stuff!
@BoishaaiPa: Oh sorry, yes that is correct…but the score read 17-15 to Glenwood and 2013 was not our strongest year either..I thought you would have a little more respect that that….yet another Tony Stoops from the Cape who thinks rugby is only played down there…
@Grasshopper: Correction…you did not beat us…you just scraped through with a penalty at the end!
@Vleis: Glenwood lost 26-48 to Garsies and that was after they lost 3 key lineouts for Garsies to then score 3 quick tries, was not a true reflection. Clifton will beat St Charles this year for sure, they too have increased their numbers to 500 plus….St Charles are out of the top 10. FYI – Glenwood beat College twice, Boland Landbou and Paarl Boys last year.
Hope we dont pull a Paul Roos on ourselves!…
@Crash Ball: Score is 28-0 to Boishaai at halftime.
@Grasshopper: Two comments:
1. Based on my experience there is no way that Clifton is above St Charles…not sure of the rest.
2. A 15 year time period, while interesting, is completely irrelevant when assessing a team’s current ranking – e.g. Glenwood shipped nearly 50 points v Garsies last year – I wonder whether they took Garsies too lightly after the latter had suffered a 100 point loss to Klofies three years earlier.
So, in short, St Charles is definitely a #7 in Natal at the moment.
@BoishaaiPa: It is going to be very tough for St Charles. Played well against Hilton, but that game cost them 3 key players. I just hope we can perform well with the players available. BTW does anyone now the score. It should be half time already.
@knowthegame: Daarsy man. Die groot kenner is terug.
@knowthegame: Verstaan nou nie so lekker nie, maar daai comment was maar net om my PR vriend so bietjie op te vryf…
@<a h@BoishaaiPa: ref=”#comment-35306″>BoishaaiPa: bly ek het blog op gespoor waar al die kenners blog
@Vleis: Actually historically St Charles were pretty good, especially in the 30’s and 40’s. I would rank KZN as follows in the past 15 years;
1) Glenwood
2) College
3) Westville
4) Michaelhouse
5) Kearsney
6) Hilton
7) Northwood
8) DHS
9) George Campbell
10) Port Natal
11) Clifton
12) St Charles
13) Voortrekker
14) St Henry’s
….Suid Natal, Gelofte, Pioneer etc
This is my gut feel but I should try and do a proper analysis but don’t have all the schools results in the past 15 years…
@Grasshopper: Historically, I’d agree with your assessment of 10th or lower for StC; however, they’ve upped their game in recent times. For starters the school has increased in size to over 500 boys in the high school with some 200 boarders. Right now, I’d have them in 7th position along with PN, NW and DHS.
@BoishaaiPa: St Charles usually have one or two good players but they rank about 10th or lower in KZN, so no chance of an upset. I reckon Boishaai by over 40.
@Vleis: This 2014 Boishaai team is a bit of an enigma…They can be brilliant one game and then for some reason forget how to play rugby the next game!…They are not as big upfront as previous years, but have skillfull ball players in the forwards and the backs. I expect tough games against both Jeppe and PBHS. Good luck to the boys, we will be rooting from afar!
@BoishaaiPa: To be honest, I’ll be surprised if Boishaai win by less than 50 points. There is zero (I repeat zero) chance of an upset.
I’m sure that Boishaai will use all of their reserves in the St Charles game to get some rest prior to the Jeppe and PBHS games. The latter games will be much tougher, albeit I still think that Boishaai will win them fairly comfortably.
Can anyone from KZN give us an idea of St Charles’s rugby strength?..I see they just lost by one point to Hilton. Fortunatly Boishaai’s new coach is from Glenwood so he will have a relative knowledge of what to expect. We the supporters however are totally ignorant in that regard!. Should we expect a possible upset or a close game or what?
Scots College are the team to beat!! trust me! they were number one in australia last year tied with Newington! watch them dismantle PBHS! watch their 8thman Angus crichton solid player with tree trunks for legs!
here are they 2013 highlights- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iLppiDSuAo
@Tandem: Hey me! What? Why?
@beet: Beet are you closet Paul Roos supporter ?
St Johns (Harare) vs Paul Roos
Paarl Boys High vs St Charles
eisch
I’m in two minds about the SJC fixture list. On the plus side, the stronger teams don’t want three tough fixtures in four days as players need rest. Also, I think that all 30 players in the squad need to play 60 minutes, so the reserves can get to put on the 1st team jersey against the weaker opposition. Finally, the ‘less fancied’ teams will be very excited to have a crack against the big dogs. That said, I think that the gap may be too wide in some instances in this tournament.
Not the best matchups that could have been possible. a Couple of mismatches I fear. Waterkloof vs Klein Nederburg is not an ideal match in my opinion. WK forwards will be much to big and heavy for KN. I would have loved to see Boishaai vs WK. I do like the Boishaai vs Jeppe and Boishaai vs PBHS. These are two teams than we dont get to play often.
Day 1 might contain a few blowouts esp in the first 3 games but Day 2 and Day 3 are gonna be very good. Well worth attending this festival for those lucky enough to have the opportunity
I would have given the Aussies games against Paul Roos, Boishaai and then Waterkloof to give them a nice welcome to South Africa.. and to give them experiences to remember and cherish to take back home.
@beet: Real pity Beet. Can’t see Boys High giving Bois High a go. The Kloof and Paul Roos game on Saturday should be a hummer. Bois High against St Charles??? Eina.
Wow so no Boishaai vs Klofies game in 2014.
That aussie team is going to get thumped.
@BoishaaiPa: PRG are always regarded as one of the powerhouses of SBR. It will be interesting to see if PRG are still 5th overall in the combined rankings from 2009-2013.
@BoishaaiPa: @Maroon: PRG are overdue for a big season now.
@Maroon: Are you guys going to deliver soon on all the promises?..I heard that same story from different sources for the last 3 years now!…
@Woltrui: dont be too surprised if Paul Roos has a better team than Paarl Boishaai in 2014. Strong grade 12 group as well as a very strong unbeaten grade 11 group.
Very nice mix, always good to have an international side to draw spectators. Far more exciting than the KES line up next door…
Lekker man, lekker. Witwarm wedstryde in pyplyn. Voorsien ‘n Kloof/Boishigh “finaal” op die Maandag en n moontlike Nellies Paul Roos voorwedstryd op Maandag. Persoonlik sien ek uit na die, sekerlik beste in Gauteng, biertuin met die “big screens”. Met skole soos Jeppe en Pta BH ook in aksie gaan hierdie die rugby fees wees in Gauteng. Hoop Boishaai speel weer teen die buitelandse skool soos in 2013. Sal goed wees as hulle die Ausies kan klap soos hulle die pommies hierdie jaar gelooi het.