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SBR combo rankings – 18 May 2013

22 May, 2013 beet 40

After receiving a request from one of the two websites not to compare their rankings to others, that project along with the Thumbsuck for 2013 has been scrapped in favour of this new initiate which combines the Top 20 rankings of 5 different websites including the well respected BHP model used on this site. The results were arrived at using a weighting and are quite interest as it seems to produce a fairly accurate Top 30.…

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Craven Week 2013: EP and EPCD teams

22 May, 2013 beet 27

The Eastern Province and Eastern Province Country Districts teams to play at Craven Week have been finalised.

Grey High School and Die Brandwag are well represented in the EP Schools team with 9 and 5 players respectively while the Country Districts team is predominantly made up of Marlow (8) and St Andrews (7) players.…

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KZN u16 & u18 final trials

21 May, 2013 beet 76

Updated. Cutting to the chase, trials were held on 2 different fields at the same time as per usual, so it was impossible to follow both under-16 and under-18 games. On the main field at Woodburn Stadium in Pietermaritzburg on a fairly warm afternoon the under-18 trial unfolded as follows:

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Battleground Pretoria: Affies vs Klofies

21 May, 2013 beet 77

The fact that the Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool Pretoria (Affies) versus Hoërskool Waterkloof (Klofies) match did not take place for a few years did not dim anyone’s enthusiasm. On the contrary it just seemed to increase everyone’s desire to see this game return so that the schools regarded as the top two in Pretoria had a showdown.

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The 150th Maritzburg College Reunion Day

21 May, 2013 beet 34

Reunion Day is always a special event at College. Old boys, students, teachers and even parents who have been part of the occasion will testify to this amazing vibe all around them that can definitely be felt and almost tasted.

Indications are that Maritzburg College Old Boys will arrive in droves to be part of the 150th celebration Reunion Day on Saturday 25 May 2013, making it possibly the biggest Reunion Day of all times and creating a wonderful atmosphere. …

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Day zero at Grey College

20 May, 2013 beet 73

On 19 August 2006, Paul Roos recorded a famous 16-11 win against Grey College in Bloemfontein. For a total of 2458 days thereafter the Grey College home ground became an impenetrable fortress as they built up what must surely be one of the longest unbeaten home streaks in modern era school rugby history.

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Waterkloof beats Garsies in an epic battle! 36-34

20 May, 2013 beet 39

Klofies first rugby team beat Garsies on Saturday, this after Waterkloof experienced three losses in a row. The match could have gone either way. Waterkloof beat Garsies 36 – 34 in a very tight match. The match was played in front of a crowd of about 5000 spectators. Garsfontein were optimistic. Their first team has never beaten Waterkloof.

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Glenwood beats DHS 46-14

19 May, 2013 beet 49

There isn’t much to write about Glenwood’s performance that wasn’t already mentioned in the preview on Friday. They actually proved to be very predictable. Predictably good that is. The final score on Van Heerden’s field was DHS 14 Glenwood 46.

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Maritzburg College beats KES 30-8

19 May, 2013 beet 16

Sometimes a score on paper doesn’t tell the full story. Full marks goes to College for winning 30-8 and breaking a losing streak against KES. It would be unfortunate to describe the margin of victory as flattering. College deserves praise for playing “pressure into points” rugby that kept their score growing while KES failed to generate sufficient redzone opportunities and convert a handful of excellent initial breaks into any movements on the scoreboard. That said the game on the field was a closer in combat than a 22-point margin suggests.

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The state of Free State schools rugby

19 May, 2013 beet 33

I leveled some perhaps unfair criticism over the state of Free State schools rugby. It’s certainly not meant to be an attack on the efforts made by schools to train players and produce good teams. It’s more concern over the growing divide between the top school Grey College and the rest in terms of competitiveness. The Free State (including the Griffons) definitely produces enough talented players to ensure that several of its schools would be highly competitive from a national point of view but preventing this is the concentration of  talent at just one school only. It’s now gotten to the point that Grey College’s 2nd XV, the Cherries are the second best team in the entire province. This is where the concern lies.

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Craven Week 2013: Boland name 3 teams

18 May, 2013 beet 9

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The Boland High Schools rugby selectors have announced three teams (plus reserves) to play against their Western Province counterparts at the CPUT (old WOK) fields in Wellington on Wednesday 22 May 2013 (starting time 14:30)…

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Results – 18 May 2013

18 May, 2013 beet 337
SCHOOL SCHOOL NOTES
George Campbell 20 24 Northwood Midweek game
Grey HS 33 24 Graeme Midweek game
Menlopark 40 17 St Albans Midweek game
M.College 30 8 KES Premier Interschools game on TV
Clifton 17 10 George Campbell  A shock result
DHS 14 46 Glenwood
Northwood 50 0 Pinetown
Port Natal 14 45 Westville
Pionier 18 7 Sarel Cilliers
St Stithians 0 62 Kearsney Saints are going through a tough spell. Concede 138 pts in last 2 games
Dale 22 25 Selborne
Kingswood 21 40 Queens
Muir College 26 55 St Andrews Muir lead 26-24 at a stage before SAC brought on 6 CW trials players
EG Jansen 45 29 Kempton Park EG cements their place as Valke no.1 team
Centurion 83 0 Zwartkop
Ben Vorster 7 35 Menlopark
Garsfontein 34 36 Waterkloof Klofies ended a 3 game losing streak & surpised a few with this win
Nelspruit 46 36 HTS Middelburg Nellies turned the tables on the team that beat them in the NuPower final last week
Transvalia 40 6 DF Malan
Volksrus 12 23 Ermelo
Marais Viljoen 15 34 Florida
Parktown 21 13 St Johns
St Albans 39 6 St Andrews (FS)
St Benedicts 31 39 Pretoria BH
Bishops 3 24 Paarl Gim
Boland Landbou 19 18 Paul Roos Huge upset. A week after Stellenberg defeated them BolandL bounce back
Drostdy 19 3 Hugenote
Oakdale 10 38 HJS Paarl BH Good win for HJS in Riversdale. This can be a tricky venue for even the best teams
Rondebosch 41 18 SACS Unpredictable SACS continues to take supporters continue on a rollercoaster ride
Wynberg 36 39 Tygerberg The upset of the day! The Tiere have been on the receiving end of a few hidings before today. This is an outstanding result for them.
Voortrekker (FS) 68 13 Kroonstad
Sentraal 5 57 Grey College
Louis Botha 26 31 Grey Cherries Continued question-marks about the well-being of Free State school rugby as a whole. Clearly the balance is not right when stand out rugby players would rather play 2nd team of one school than the 1st teams of several others in the region. A great result for Grey rugby this result but long term this kind of situation is not healthy for SBR.
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Grogper Cup: Gauteng 1 game away from victory

17 May, 2013 beet 42

There are 2 Grogper Cup games on this weekend. With Gauteng leading 6-3, KZN cannot afford anymore slip ups. KZN has to win the remaining 4 games to clinch a title in which the chase has been made a lot more difficult by the improvement in form of St Alban’s as well as the struggles of St Charles and DHS who lost to St David’s and Parktown respectively along the way.

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Craven Week 2013: KZN final trial teams

15 May, 2013 beet 102

The provisional final trial teams are out. 3 trial matches will be played at Pietermaritzburg’s Woodburn Stadium on Tuesday 21 May 2013. From the trials, 3 teams of 22 players each will be chosen: a Craven Week team, an Academy Week team and the Country Districts (CD) team. …

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Craven Week 2013: South Western District team

15 May, 2013 beet 10

The South Western Districts under-18 team will go to Craven Week this year with a genuine chance of doing well and perhaps even featuring in the main game on the final day. SWD won the unofficial Craven Week final back in 2008 when outstanding no.8 CJ Stander of Oakdale was at the helm.…

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The other ranking systems at 13 May 2013

15 May, 2013 beet 2

As mentioned before, doing this without a formula is now extremely difficult. Ranking the Noordvaal teams on their own is tricky. Between Affies, HTS, Garsies, Jansies, Nellies its really still anyone’s guess who the best team in the Noordvaal is at the moment. …