13 April 2024
At Brugstraat, Wynberg’s Craven Week flyhalf Yaqeen Ahmed coolly slotted a 40m angled kick into the wind, to condemn Paarl Boys’ High to their first defeat of 2024 by 30-27. Historically it ended a Wynberg winless drought against Boishaai at Brugstaat dating back to 1988 when current captain Aden da Costa’s old man was in that last winning team.
The significant talking point surrounding the awarding of the winning penalty was a Boishaai player returning to the field of play from the sinbin ahead of being cleared to return, which prompted the ref to pick a spot and award a penalty right at the end of the match.
Boishaai wings Ashwin Swarts and Aiden Jacobs may not carry the same ratings as their 2023 predecessors but on attack both boys have been worth their weight in gold. Boishaai had grabbed the early lead via the work-seeking Swarts being the end recipient of the same exquisite backdoor set move that BH used against KES. After Ahmed slotted two penalties to allow Berg to overtake BH at 6-5, it was Jacobs turn to do damage off another first phase setpiece. The pacey right wing found the outside line on the opposite side to grow the score to 10-6 for the hosts.
Literally from the next kickoff, the bounce of the rugby ball foxed the home team and Berg wing Levi Brown, making the most of his 2024 comeback from injury, applied Rule 101 which is to never give up the kick chase. His persistence ended in a seven-pointer. 13-10 became 20-10 before the break when another opportunist try for the visitors was scored via a huge wind-assisted Gerry Owen powered by Ahmed’s big boot. It was totally misread by the fielding defender who wasn’t close to being under the high ball inside his own 22. A good bounce for Berg and their wing Kunene Gadu finished.
The BH lineout has been an area of severe criticism in 2023 and this game didn’t do that much to alter opinions but 15-min into the second half, a successful setpiece paved the way for flank Anroux du Plessis to score from the tail of a good maul drive in the right corner.
It didn’t take BH too long after that to draw level. Sustained redzone pressure eventually presented the chance for Swarts to link up with Jacobs four a fourth team try, again in a corner. Two significant points at this time junction were that both BH tries in the half had strong scrum penalties as key turnover starting points and at 20-all, where Berg had converted both tries from difficult angles, BH had missed four acute angle conversions.
Torren February take a big bow for paving the way for Berg’s third and final try. His ability to not only stay on his feet in what was looking like a situation where he would get dominated in contact but also move forward through heavy traffic on the blindside, created the frontfoot ball, which ultimately led to the try and a 27-20 lead after 64min.
Big character was applied by BH to get to the back into territory from which they could attack the Berg tryline with ball-in-hand. Several forwards had low body position drives at the line and were repelled by some stubborn defence. Finally the ball was shifted right to Swarts who was once again looking for work off away from his left wing post. He used his agility to get between tacklers and get over for the first converted BH try.
BH had a case of five tries versus three being worth the win but 27-all result based on play in general would have allowed both teams to depart with their heads held high.
It was not to be.
Ahmed’s penalty at the death rewrote the history books after 34 years since their last home win in 1991. It also meant that all the good hard work that is going into the Wynberg rugby programme which has seen them achieve over the past few year, finally had the missing big Winelands scalp as a crowning jewel.
Wynberg had set aside N1 Fever and won in Paarl to make it that much more special.
| TEAM | HJS PAARL BH | TEAM | WYNBERG | ||
| 1 | Bernard du Toit | u17 | 1 | Luqobo Makwedini | |
| 2 | Christiaan Grundling | u17 | 2 | Xabiso Mkiva | |
| 3 | Juan vd Merwe | u17 | 3 | Benjamin Matthews | |
| 4 | Dian Smal | u18 | 4 | Jaythen Orange | |
| 5 | Jayden Joubert | u17 | 5 | Tjeripo Karuhumba | |
| 6 | Anroux du Plessis | u18 | 6 | Jamie Stride | |
| 7 | Rubin Dames | u18 | 7 | Aden da Costa | |
| 8 | Douw Wessels | u18 | 8 | Torren February | |
| 9 | Keagan Smith | u19 | 9 | Tyrone Gombe | |
| 10 | Viaan Mentoor | u18 | 10 | Yaqeen Ahmed | |
| 11 | Ashwin Swarts | u18 | 11 | Levi Brown | |
| 12 | Tristan Fransman | u18 | 12 | Brandon Ashburner | |
| 13 | Tristan Joubert | u17 | 13 | Albert Lourens | |
| 14 | Aiden Jacobs | u18 | 14 | Kunene Gadu | |
| 15 | Francois vd Merwe | u17 | 15 | Morne Noble | |
| Coach | SEAN ERASMUS | Coach | JUSTIN VAN WINKEL |
@gimmie (Comment #16)
With regards to ages in the Wynberg side, 1 × U19 , 6 x U17 & the rest U18.
@gimmie (Comment #16)
As far as horrible stats go, Landbou last won at Berg in 2012, in the rain, with Notshe at 8. We have many hurdles this term, with the visit to Berg a very high one. I think our gr11’s would have settled into opens rugby by then though, so hopefully we will front up and put up a good fight
@Ploegskaar, totally agree the Wynberg pack is very strong and physical. Would be interesting to know how many u19s are in their team, especially bearing in mind that PBHS had 6 u17s. Our Matrics never beat Wynberg during age group years, so I am very nervous for our visit to the Berg in July. I won’t therefore read too much into the PBHS loss. Their game against PRoos this week will be a big test. The score of Rbosch vs PRoos was certainly not a true reflection of the game. It was extremely tight until the last 10 min. Rbosch has an excellent team.
@Kantman (Comment #9)
Definitief meer fisies en groter pakke elke jaar. Wynberg het ‘n bulpak die jaar
@beet (Comment #6)
Your points are valid and my opinion will be weighed after next year, but I don’t think Bosch and especially Berg will fade away anytime soon
It was one of those SBR games where you felt justice was done in the end. Wynberg deserved the win due to their continues pressure and superb goal kicking. For Boishaai they had their chances..did not convert them and paid the price. So lesson hopefully learned.
Great win for Wynberg and the Paarl supporters have been gracious in defeat. I am sure this will define Wynberg season due to the “historic” nature of the win. It wont define Paarl Boys season though and they will go on to end top 3, they are a good side. My observation is that Wynberg have managed the first team very well for the start of the season. They have not played as many games as other schools and in particular high intensity games. Paarl have played way more games and some of those were against strong opposition. That may well have made the difference. It is good for schoolboy rugby, particularly in the S/Subs for these kind of results to happen from time to time.
Currently there are a five or six ex Wynberg boys playing for the Ikeys in the Varsity Cup which is a good indication of the development of rugby at Wynberg in recent years.
The Paarl powerhouses are incredible rugby nurseries, in terms of depth and consistently putting out brilliant teams. If you are slightly off, either mentally or in terms of execution, you are punished. Hence some predictions of a 30+ point home victory.
Wynberg is less consistent with some better and some average years. According to the ranking on this site, 6 top 15, two of which were top 7 finishes in the past 12 seasons. There have been some good teams in this bunch that have felt heartbreak losing at the death to the Paarl giants. No better example than last season where a long distance try off the last movement won a great game of rugby for BHS. The same heartbreak of seeing another one slip away seemed to be scripted this weekend with BHS once again showing they are never beaten and scoring the 7-pointer to tie it up at the death. They are just so professional, and you would back them to put together phase after phase without unforced error to win close games, Garsies already saw that this season. It’s for this reason that this win means so much to the Wynberg pupils and old boys. It was a strange end to another great game, but do feel that Wynberg over the past decade or so were perhaps due a bit of luck.
Really looking forward to see how BHS bounce back this week, sure to be another tough game.
Amazing how much gets read into the result – BHS was going for the win after their try to make it 27-27 and with the wind behind them, Wynberg looked as if they were happy to take the draw after time expired. After BHS got the penalty, they could have tapped and kick it out and game would have been over and they would still have been unbeaten. But they went for the win, kicked for the line out, sent on the sin bin player (they believed that they were entitled to, a mistake for which the team paid) to assist with the maul I assume from the line out, the line judge intervened, the kick was a free play to a brilliant kicker and the rest is history.
@Ploegskaar (Comment #5)
My kennis is maar oppervlakkig en baseer op wat ek waarneem langs die veld. Wel gesien daar is groep jong afrigters by laer spanne wat die spanne hard aanspoor vir direkte rugby – anders as by ander SS skole waar hulle punte wil laag hou.
@Trots HJS (Tandem) (Comment #4)
As ek na daai tellings kyk, dink ek dit staaf my gevoel. Hulle spanne is kompiterend. Teken punte aan en probeer nie net die telling laag hou nie. O14 is uitsondering.
@Ploegskaar (Comment #5) Geluk met daardie puik oorwinning Mnr S. Ongelooflik. Hou van jou relatief nuwe trui.
@Ploegskaar (Comment #5)
How much should we be reading into the impact Covid had on different schools in terms of rugby recruitment? After 2025, the last of the Covid 5-year cycle is out of the system. Will the SS4 still be able to hold their own in these derbies after that?
Also when I last asked about the newish Berg HM and his influence on rugby proceedings, the answer was along the lines of “too soon to offer credit” Although there are a lot of things that can be improved or allowed to slip in-between isn’t this assessement also sort of on a 5-year cycle from the year after he joins?
@Kantman (Comment #3)
Vote needs to go to the HM, that knows the value and marketing potential of a successful flagship sporting team in SA context. Big ups to the coaches and a fruitful relationship with Murray, but kudos to the HM that was the catalyst. Berg will continue to scramble those eggs
@Kantman (Comment #3)
Absolutely true for the coaching of the first team . Please do not see this as sour grapes but only one other Wynberg team won on the day and that was the 0/14 E team who won against the 0/14 G team. I will therefore not say there is a revival in general. 014 A 0-27 , 0/15 A 16-31 O/16 A 17-43 , 0/ 19 C 7-40 0/19 B 0- 59. Obviously taking nothing away from a clever game plan in the first team game centred around their brilliant SA schools nr 10.
Huge vote for the coaching effort Wynberg has put in the last four years. Great for WP rugby.
Raises the bar for the Boishaai game against PRG a couple of notches.
A huge congratulations to Berg for a massive win on Saturday! They came within 30 seconds of beating Paarl Boys last year only for a last-gasp, 90m turnover try denied them at the death.
As we know, it is massively difficult for a Southern Suburbs school to beat their counterparts from across the N1.
For Berg, it is the first win against Paul Roos/Paarl Gym/Paarl Boys since at least 2010 (according to my research), but it could be even more years before that.
A very impressive feat and well done to the Berg boys!
That’s a very cool story about da Costa senior & junior. Well done Wynberg- games like these give the underdogs belief.