Sunday will be yet another extremely interesting Club Rugby Day.
Here are some of my predictions:
U13A Harlequins vs Collegians: Collegians to win.
U13A Varsity College vs Hillcrest: Varsity College could cause an upset here.
U15A Hillcrest vs Varsity College: This one could go either way, personally I think Hillcrest to take it.
U16A Varsity College vs Collegians: This is again a hard to predict outcome, the teams are evenly matched.
U16A Ballito vs Amanzimtoti: Old rivals doing battle with Ballito being a much improved side since 2010.
Main Games:
U18A, 15H00 : Crusaders vs Harlequins
U18A, 16H15 : Ballito A vs Collegians
In the U18, Harlequins should have the better of Crusaders, taking into considerate that the Bluff club has 10 or so starters from the Bokkie Week side as well as having the same coach, giving them the cohesion to dominate the initial stages of this season. However with Crusaders having been together for three games now, they to will start to click as well. Harlequins will have to fight for this win. Common opponents Harlequins also makes for an interesting comparative ahead of the Collegians vs Ballito game. Two weekends ago. Ballito held Harlequins in what was the afore mentioned club’s first game of the season. Although Ballito went down, their losing effort was a lot more favourably than than that of Collegians. This will be a good game.
| FIXTURES FOR QUEENSBURGH 19 AUGUST | ||
| A_FIELD | TIME | TEAM |
| U13 A | 09H30 | Harlequins vs Collegians |
| U13 A | 10H30 | Varsity College vs Hillcrest |
| U15 A | 11H30 | Hillcrest vs Varsity College |
| U16 | 12H40 | Varsity College vs Collegians |
| U16 | 13H50 | Ballito vs Amanzimtoti |
| U18 A | 15H00 | Crusaders vs Harlequins |
| U18 B | 16H20 | Queensburgh vs Ballito B |
| B_FIELD | TIME | TEAM |
| U13 B | 09H00 | Hillcrest vs Pinetown |
| U13 B | 09H55 | Amanzimtoti vs Crusaders |
| U15 B | 10H50 | Ballito vs Collegians B |
| U15 A | 11H45 | Harlequins vs Rovers |
| U15 B | 12H40 | Amanzimtoti vs Queensburgh |
| U16 | 13H40 | Harlequins vs Pinetown |
| U18 B | 15H00 | Amanzimtoti vs Pinetown |
| U18 A | 16H15 | Ballito A vs Collegians |
| LOGS as of 5th August 2012 | ||||||||
| Log U13 A | ||||||||
| Teams | Played | Won | Lost | Draw | DNP | PD | BP | Points |
| Hillcrest A | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 1 | 5 |
| Varsity College | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 1 | 5 |
| Collegians | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 5 |
| Harlequins | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | -79 | 0 | 0 |
| Log U13 B | ||||||||
| Teams | Played | Won | Lost | Draw | DNP | PD | BP | Points |
| Crusaders | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 1 | 5 |
| Ballito | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 5 |
| Hillcrest B | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Amanzimtoti | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | -12 | 1 | 1 |
| Pinetown | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -33 | 0 | 0 |
| Log U15 A | ||||||||
| Teams | Played | Won | Lost | Draw | DNP | PD | BP | Points |
| Collegians | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 98 | 2 | 10 |
| Varsity College | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 57 | 1 | 5 |
| Hillcrest A | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 1 | 5 |
| Harlequins | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | -55 | 0 | 0 |
| Rovers | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | -117 | 0 | 0 |
| Log U15 B | ||||||||
| Teams | Played | Won | Lost | Draw | DNP | PD | BP | Points |
| Hillcrest B | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 9 |
| Ballito | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 5 |
| Collegians | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Amanzimtoti | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -7 | 1 | 1 |
| Queensburgh | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | -15 | 0 | 0 |
| Log U16 | ||||||||
| Teams | Played | Won | Lost | Draw | DNP | PD | BP | Points |
| Collegians | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 2 | 10 |
| Amanzimtoti | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 57 | 1 | 9 |
| Varsity College | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 1 | 5 |
| Ballito | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -17 | 1 | 5 |
| Harlequins | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | -8 | 0 | 0 |
| Pinetown | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | -85 | 0 | 0 |
| Log U18 | ||||||||
| Teams | Played | Won | Lost | Draw | DNP | PD | BP | Points |
| Crusaders | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 102 | 2 | 10 |
| Harlequins | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 1 | 9 |
| Collegians | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 64 | 1 | 5 |
| Pinetown | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -42 | 1 | 5 |
| Ballito A | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -9 | 0 | 0 |
| Amanzimtoti | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -14 | 0 | 0 |
| Ballito B | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -46 | 0 | 0 |
| Queensburgh | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -64 | 0 | 0 |
Contributed by GreenHopper
What has happened IMO, is that money gets spent in the wrong area of Youth Rugby , Clubs need to focus on u7 – u18 rugby , it where the love of the game comes from, its these kids that go ot get the parents to go to experience Sharks etc. They want to play , but the structures battle here, with no funding. The Union spreads the little they need to the Clubs and don’t concentrate eon feeder systems. Clubs are dying because they have no feeders into the Clubs.
Transport, Club timers, etc, make it hard for the little boys to come through, Schools especially at High school prohibit the club participation, or at least frown on it . If you want 40 players in the u21 to u19 you need to feed at least 35 players form your u19 into it every year. Yes some boys leave the area after school, but want you want them to do is join a club where they are going and the same for players coming into your area.
I think Rovers sees this and building on the location of Rovers and the success of the Club at Club level , they have the ideal opportunity to market and grow the junior section , and I think they are putting money into it .
But the Senior Clubs are more concerned with their participation and neglect the juniors . If you had more kids playing , the bring the parent, they in terms bring friends of the brothers and sisters etc and its exponential in grow. The Club will have added revenue and this will grow the club to be more sustainable. All club moan that funding isn’t a problem,
It’s a known fact that more supporters watch a U18 game between Crusaders and Toti , then say a Match between Rovers and Crusaders. Apart from the added revenue you have the boys coming through, attention needs to be given to the Junior Club Structures and participation , if growth and rejuvenation of Clubs participation.
@All Black: Their juniors are certainly impressive, but they’ve neglected youth rugby for all these years – their first year back in the youth ranks this year and struggling – just a matter of time and I’m sure their youth teams will be competitive also – look forward to that.
@All Black: i see that , so effectively there is no “OLD BOYS” ANY MORE , so sad if GW and DHS dont have that any more
College Rovers have won the U20A knock out already and now have U20B, 2nds and 1st teams contesting finals on sat. Not sure if the 3rd team plays but they also won their league. Pretty impressive record. I see DHS old boys starting to migrate to Rovers as well now as Varsity College no longer identifies with a school.
@Greenhopper: I can’t speak for the other clubs, but for Hillcrest it starts a lot earlier … from Under 7 – Under 13 level we draw from Hillcrest, Highbury, HCA, Gelofte, Kloof, Westville primary schools.
Those players generally stay with us through to Colts so we end up with players from Glenwood, Gelofte, Westville, Kearsney, Hillcrest, Kloof and sometimes even College and Hilton – a real mixed bag, but the boys build their rugby friendships very early on and follow them all the way through – one of the reasons our youth rugby is pretty strong.
@Pedantic: hey it must be, who are the clubs they beat ?? are there boys from certain schools that go to certain clubs?? example all teh boys from Hilcrest and Kloof and say Kearsney got to Say Hillcrest?
@Pedantic: hey it must be, who ar eteh clubs they beat ?? are there boys from certain schools that go to certain clubs?? example all teh boys from Hilcrest and Kloof and say Kearsney got to Say Hillcrest?
@Greenhopper: That would make two clubs with 3 match clean sweeps on Sunday – Ballito & Hillcrest turning the tables on the big guns – must be superior coaching ? ;)
heard that one club had a clean sweep of three games beating Toti and Colligians , is that true??
I have a few results:
U13B – Hillcrest 17 – Pinetown 12 (Friendly – Pinetown failed to filed a team and borrowed players from Hillcrest)
U13A – Hillcrest 59 – Varsity College 5
U15A – Hillcrest 26 – Varsity College 7
U15A – Harlequins 52 – College Rovers 0