MATCH REPORT
Â
DANIEL PIENAAR FINISH THEIR FESTIVAL VISIT, WITH A WIN OVER GRAEME
The final day at the St John’s College Easter Rugby Festival sponsored by Standard Bank, saw a couple of games cancelled due to bad weather. This led to a delay in matches as the field was inspected and eventually deemed safe for play. After the inspection, it was then decided that 3 matches would take place instead of the scheduled 7 for the day. The first game saw HTS Daniel Pienaar produce a gutsy performance to defeat Graeme College 15-7, after having trailed the boys from the Eastern Cape 7-5 at the break.
The first half saw both teams having to adapt very quickly to the conditions that were laid out in front of them, with pitch being very greasy due to the heavy rainfall that took place over night and earlier in the morning. Both sides found it difficult to handle the ball, especially when it was played out wide. Eventually short passes were the go to plan and the forwards held onto the ball more, which saw the game settle more. It was however Daniel Pienaar who crossed the whitewash first through Ceagan Bothma, with the conversion attempt going wide. With the score at 5-0, Graeme fought hard to find a way back in the game and were eventually rewarded for their efforts just before the break, when Declan de la Mare dived over to level matters, before Lakhanya Sam added the extra 2 with a conversion, to give Graeme a slender 7-5 lead at halftime.
The second half saw a little more handling errors, but it was Daniel Pienaar who seemed like they wanted the victory more, running in a further 2 unconverted tries through Marco Gouws and Darrian Edwards. That in the end was enough to secure a thrilling 15-7 win on Burger field.
Â
MATCH REPORT
Â
PAARL BOYS’ HIGH FINISH STRONG, WITH YET ANOTHER WIN
Paarl Boys’ High School remained unbeaten at the St John’s College Easter Rugby Festival sponsored by Standard Bank, after they managed to beat Hoerskool Nelspruit 40-0. The game was however cut short due to the threat of lightning looming over Burger field. The display of rugby from the boys from Paarl was incredible to witness throughout the festival, as they dismantled every team they squared up against.
The match however started off with Nelspruit really threatening Boys’ Highs unbeaten record in the festival, playing the early exchanges between the two sides deep in the Paarl half. Nelspruit however made errors in crucial areas, which stopped them from getting any points on the board. Paarl did however eventually gather themselves and start playing the free flowing expansive rugby they are famous for, with their backs running great lines creating space. This eventually lead to a pile up of points, with the likes of Javier Farmer, Gideon van Wyk and Neil Venter being amongst the scorers that saw Paarl off to a 26-0 lead at the interval.
There were evident signs of fatigue from the Nelspruit players as the game progressed, which led to them failing to keep up with Paarl’s high tempo. Nelspruit continued to concede in the second half, with Paarl’s Kian Meadon once again in great form with the boot, only failing to convert 2 out of 6 tries. The game was however eventually cut short due to the bad weather and Paarl were happy to finish with a 40-0 win even though the boys would have probably preferred to have been on the pitch longer.
MATCH REPORT
Â
ST JOHN’S GAME WITH NSW COMBINED HIGH SCHOOLS CALLED OFF DUE TO BAD WEATHER
The final fixture at the St John’s College Easter Rugby Festival sponsored by Standard Bank, saw St John’s College and the New South Wales Combined High Schools take to the field, under tough rainy conditions. The match however did not last very long, with the rainfall becoming more intense and the lightning making another appearance, the referee immediately took the decision to pull the players off for safety reasons. That was unfortunately how the festival concluded, with only two matches out of the 7 taking place.
