Affies once again raises the bar for SA schoolboy rugby

Quote from an Affies statistics collector:

Affies Rugby Enjoys an Exceptional 2025 Season! 🇧🇴

Affies have set standards for themselves that will be difficult to surpass in the 2026 season! To be recognised as a true rugby school, every player and every team must be valued – and that philosophy is clearly visible in Affies’ 2025 rugby results.

The Affies rugby boys played a total of 331 matches, winning an incredible 307 of them – a win percentage of 92.75% across all fixtures! And they didn’t just win; they dominated, boasting an average scoreline of 45.19 to 9.39 per game – an average winning margin of 35.8 points! 👈💪

What makes this achievement even more remarkable is that 49.85% of the games were played against higher teams – for example, an E side taking on a B or C side.

In Pretoria, Affies stand unmatched. They played 57 matches in the city, winning every single one, with an average score of 56–8. Of those, 14 were against higher-ranked teams. Pretoria Boys High was the only Pretoria school to show any form of progress against Affies – even though they still lost every match. They did, however, manage to put one more fixture on the schedule compared to 2024, with all of their teams playing against Affies’ equivalent sides.

Affies has assembled one of the most complete schoolboy rugby programmes in South Africa, thanks to stellar coaching and a strong teacher-driven culture. They now have several C and D team coaches who are more than capable of holding their own at A team level.

The question now is whether the Pretoria powerhouse has overtaken Grey College as the country’s top rugby school.

Grey’s A and B teams remain formidable, but since Covid the overall rugby balance of power has shifted. Schools like Affies and Paul Roos, with their vast depth, now rival or surpass Grey across the age groups. Paarl Gim, despite being a co-ed school with a smaller pool of boys to choose from, also continues to punch above its weight with a programme many rate as the best in the country.

The 1st XV Puzzle

Depth is Affies’ great strength, but it does not automatically translate into 1st XV dominance. In 2024, their overall rugby suggested they were the best in South Africa, yet when it mattered most, the big-match temperament slipped and Paul Roos walked away with the accolades.

Affies’ DNA has always been built on forward power and classy scrumhalves. That foundation remains, but the real question is how far their backline play can evolve without losing the essence of what makes Affies rugby unique.

The Need for X-Factor

Affies’ attacking shapes and style of play have evolved significantly since 2020. The improvements make for an exciting future for their brand. But what they have lacked in recent years is the kind of X-factor in the backline that makes the difference particularly in tight games. Speed kills – and the Affies supporters are eagerly waiting for the next generation of game-breakers. Important to note that in an age of high recruitment in which advertising sports bursaries on social media has become a norm, Affies works with the players who arrive in Grade 8, and do not head hunt to plug weakness gaps in specific positions after Grade 8.

The u16A crop of 2025 offers hope: players like Kyle van Staden, Dandre Brink and Rico du Plessis bring the explosiveness that could elevate the 1st XV to the very top over the next couple of years.

This is a rugby programme on the up!

Powerhouse Interschools stats compliments of A.S. (AHS ’82)