On Saturday Western Province and the Blue Bulls prepare to go head to head at Newlands in one of the most eagerly anticipated clashes of any junior rugby season. These days there is no such thing as a weakened Bulls under-19 team, just a reshuffled one. Former SA Schools lock Irne Herbst joins two other 2011 SA Schools teammates on the Bulls injury list and his position is merely taken up by another SA Schools player, Jacques du Plessis. Such is the wealth of talent in Pretoria these days that in another SA Schools twist tighthead prop Neethling Fouche captains the Bulls team resulting in Andrew Beerwinkel having to start the match on the replacements bench. All in all the Bulls have seven capped SA Schools players in their 23-man squad along with a host of other Craven Week campaigners. By comparison, WP has only one SA Schools representative in the form of wing JP Lewis. Nevertheless it still is a fairly well known Province side. Before their bye last weekend WP came from behind to beat the Lions away in Round 1, so the “Lekka Dinge” definitely aren’t early season slouchers. It also has to be noted that it’s a different ball game now. SBR reputations are out the window. They count for zilch on the under-19 rugby field. That said, the Bulls should be able to overcome a strong Weepee challenge to win this match. Expect a good game and after it, followers of junior rugby will have a far better idea of where the balance of power lies in this year’s competition. It’s also nice to see a good few KZN school goers in action in this one.
Another interesting Saturday game will play itself out at Coca-Cola Park when the winless Lions host the unbeaten Leopards. Although the previous statement is factual, it’s probably an unfair reflection of the true state of affairs. The little Leopards Union has achieved an outstanding victory in Bloemfontein, claiming a valuable bonus point in the process. The Free State has not set the world alight with their form though. The men from the North West Province followed up their Free State win with victory against the hapless SWD, the latter being yet to score a point on the field in 140 minutes of competition game time. So it is a full house of points which is excellent for the Leopards but not 100% convincing that they are top half of the table material, at least not just yet. Some might argue that the Lions have had the toughest start of all teams: WP and then the Bulls. The results in both games suggest the Lions, although not even earned losing bonus points, are competitive. The Jozi based outfit desperately needs a victory against a confident Leopards team. A hard one to call but good money should be on the Lions.
For the Friday game, the Sharks will travel to George where getting the bonus point win should be a formality. If the visitors want to set a realistic target for themselves it should be to score at least 40 points and blank SWD on the scoreboard. The Sharks have made just two changes from the team that thumped the Free State. Lock David Fisher switches the starting role with Louis Hazelhurst, while SA Academy 2011 prop Matt Jones is added as player number 23. The Sharks have a total of three SA Schools reps in their ranks.
Table:
| # | Team | P | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | TF | TA | BPts | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bulls | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 129 | 25 | 104 | 19 | 3 | 2 | 10 |
| 2 | Leopards | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 64 | 31 | 33 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 10 |
| 3 | Sharks | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 16 | 22 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 4 | Western Province | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 13 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 5 | Free State | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 47 | 70 | -23 | 4 | 10 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | Border | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Lions | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 38 | 62 | -24 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | SWD Eagles | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 122 | -122 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 0 |
Teams:
| WESTERN PROVINCE | BLUE BULLS | SHARKS | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sthi Sithole (Westville) | 1 | Justin Forwood (Waterkloof) | 1 | Nic Roebeck (Rondebosch) |
| Frederick Kirsten (Boishaai) | 2 | Theuns Reynolds (Monnas) | 2 | Morne du Plessis (Waterkloof) |
| Nicol Heyns (Boland Landbou) | 3 | Neethling Fouche (Grey College) | 3 | Richard Palframan (Rondebosch) |
| Jean Kleyns (Linden) | 4 | Dennis Visser (Affies) | 4 | David Fisher (Pretoria Boys High) |
| Andrew Becker (Michaelhouse) | 5 | Jacques du Plessis (Ermelo) | 5 | Myles Tucker (Rondebosch) |
| Eital Bredenkamp (Affies) | 6 | Roelof Smit (Waterkloof) | 6 | Petrus Uys (Swellendam) |
| Jurie van Vuuren (Oakdale) | 7 | Ferdi Horn (Glenwood) | 7 | Andrew van Tonder (EG Jansen) |
| Justin Benn (Daniel Pienaar) | 8 | Nicolaas Immelman (Grey College) | 8 | Jean Pretorius (Sentraal) |
| Jean Nel (Boishaai) | 9 | Kefentse Mahlo (Ben Vorster) | 9 | Stefan Ungerer (Maritzburg College) |
| Tomasco Allan (Scotland) | 10 | Francois Tredoux (Waterkloof) | 10 | Robert du Preez (Kearsney) |
| Jean-Paul Lewis (Paul Roos) | 11 | Ruwellyn Isbell (Grey College) | 11 | Alcino Izaacs (Namib HS) |
| Janco Gunther (Waterkloof) | 12 | Dries Swanepoel (Grey College) | 12 | Gareth Meikle (Lomagundi,Zimbabwe) |
| Justin Geduld (Tygerberg) | 13 | Juan Smit (Ben Vorster) | 13 | Tyler Fisher (Westville) |
| Werner Kok (Nelspruit) | 14 | Jason Kriel Kriel (Dirkie Uys) | 14 | Kotaro Matsushima (Toin Gakven,Japan) |
| Cheslin Kolbe (Brackenfell) | 15 | Jacques Rossouw (Piketburg) | 15 | Sean Robinson (Waterkloof) |
| Brainton Booysen (Outeniqua) | 16 | Jacques Taylor (Glenwood) | 16 | Warrick Venter (Selborne) |
| Etienne Swanepoel (Tygerberg) | 17 | Andrew Beerwinkel (Porterville) | 17 | John-Hubert Meyer (Paul Roos) |
| Niel Oelofse (Glenwood) | 18 | Clyde Davids (Paarl Gim) | 18 | Louis Hazelhurst (George Campbell) |
| Christiaan Benade (Kempton Park) | 19 | Leneve Damens (Grey College) | 19 | Theo Kruger (THS Sasolburg) |
| Michael Murphy (Paarl Gym) | 20 | Tokkie Mtsweni (Waterkloof) | 20 | Bokkie Carstens (Pau Roos) |
| Andre Warner (Tygerberg) | 21 | Niel Meyer (HTS Middelburg) | 21 | Brendon Cope (DHS) |
| Michael de Boer (Drostdy) | 22 | Wandi Sompontsha (Wynberg) | 22 | Sphu Msutwana (Dale College) |
| Selom Gavor (Rondebosch) | 23 | Jan Enslin (Grey PE) | 23 | Matt Jones (Kearsney) |
@Andre T: Hi Andre. Exciting weekend. Lions in Durbs. I’m working on it now.
Beet
Anything happening this weekend on the u/19 front?
@BoishaaiPa: I’ve heard the boys will be taken out of school for 2 weeks so maybe they will only get together after this coming weekend.
@BoishaaiPa: What’s gonna happen to SA Schools players. With the games starting on 10 August, surely the coach will want to assemble and train his players this weekend???
@BoishaaiPa:
It’s going to be the Handre Pollard and Jean- Luc Du Plessis show everyone is looking forward to that battle.
Paarl Gym have fantastic loose forwards led by the inspirational Corne Cooper.
Those Momsen twins deadly with ball in hand.
@beet: The SA Schools cap was expected!..Anyway..we have more serious things to focus on this week!…We are playing a school with 2 SA Schools players!..yummy!
u19 Lions 43 Leopards 15
u21 Lions 28 Leopards 36
@BoishaaiPa: I see your favourite 2nd team hooker has done his province proud at trials today.
@BoishaaiPa: Yeah. Excellent win for the Province u19 boys against the star-studded Bulls. Bulls u21 too strong for Province tho. I guess missing Kitshoff, Malherbe, Etsabeth, Kolisi and Carr was always gonna hurt the WP u21 team that claimed the u19 title 2 years back.
@beet: WP won 20-16
The Sharks u19s won 46-3.
I would love to see Janco Gunther against Dries Swanepoel,Cheslin Kobe is an Aplon in the making,enjoy watching this fella,Eital gonna playing with a point to prove against Bulls
@Grasshopper: Interesting that all 3 props (Oelofse, Sithole and Jones) from the same year are looseheads. Bigger in size than all 3 is Maritzburg College Blue Bull u19 squad member Robert Joynson who was a 2nd team prop at College last year.
Another College player Lwazi Sithole, a try-scoring wing is in the WP u19 group and so is his teammate Ryan Odendaal, who was a lock last year but like Ferdi, will probably shift to blindside flank.
Stefan Ungerer we nearly had him happy he has started the season well great player when fit.
Bulls will target klein Cheslin Kolbe with bombs on saturday.
Keep an eye on the versatile Jason Kriel the kid is 98kgs and pretty quick.If he can stay fit he has a chance to make the SA Under 20 training squad later this year.
Still waiting for Ruwellyn to break down again.
WP blessed with depth at 9 .
Andre Warner has a bright future he certainly impressed last year for WP next to Swiel.
Its amazing to see the make up of these teams – a real mix and match of ex schoolboys playing for Provinces outside of where they were schooled – No doubt this would be the work of talent scouts roaming around at 1st team games sussing out prospective talents – 1st thought is why is this College guy playing for the Bulls – why not the sharks ?
Pity Affies old boy Carlo Engelbrecht is unavailable at scrumhalf.I hope he can recover mentally and physically he’s a talented player.
@Grasshopper:
You can add Pieter Oosthuizen at wing from the Bulls Under 21’s great little player.Played in the 2009 craven week side.
Wow, imagine if KZN could have kept te talent playing in the other provinces! Good to see Chippy (Neil Oelofse) in the WP squad. Out of all the squads above there are 12 ‘home grown’ KZN guys who would make a very competitive team with only a few purchases required…
1) Sthi Sithole
2) Jacques Taylor
3) Matt Jones/Neil Oelofse
4)
5) Andrew Becker
6) Louis Hazelhurst
7) Ferdi Horn
8)
9) Stefan Ungerer
10) Robert Du Preez
11)
12) Dean Moolman (not on the list but at the Bulls)
13) Tyler Fisher
14) Brendon Cope
15)
Sharks, wake up and retain the locals..