Farmers meet in Cradock
The odds may be heavily stacked against the home side when you consider the amount of SWD representative players in the Oakdale side – 17 in total – but Marlow will certainly not be pushovers, boasting a dozen Eastern Province Country District representatives of their own.
Both sides have injury concerns, however, that will not take anything away from what is sure to be a highly physical – as most agricultural school teams are – yet fast paced encounter.
The rivalry may be intense on the field of play, however, these schools get on well together with the staff members finding some time for fun. When Marlow visits Riversdale, the Oakdale staff treats their visitors to fishing on the Friday. With Oakdale heading to Cradock this year, they will be taken on a hunt, compliments of the Marlow staff.
No scores are kept on such occasions!
On the playing side of things though, both coaches: Rikus van Dyk (Marlow) and Malan du Plessis (Oakdale) agree on one common factor – it's never easy to play at the home of the Wolramme.
Both teams are coming off the back of losses with Marlow suffering an agonising two point loss to St Andrews (24-26) and Paul Roos getting the better of Oakdale (29-15), so both will be looking to get back onto the victory truck.
Teams:
Marlow: 15 Armand van den Heever, 14 Charel du Plessis, 13 Stefan Botes, 12 Andre Kritzinger (captain), 11 Thinus Ferreira, 10 Gerhard Potgieter, 9 Xander Stotter, 8 Renier Pretorius, 7 Gunther Pretorius, 6 Herman du Plessis, 5 Herman Greef, 4 Janse Roux, 3 TJ Scheepers, 2 Arno le Roux, 1 Pual Du Randt.
Replacements: 16 Jandre Bezuidenhout, 17 NJ Oosthuizen, 18 Wihan Ferreira, 19 CJ van Niekerk, 20 Lourens Oosthuizen, 21 Nelus van Wyk.
Oakdale: 15 Darren Adonis, 14 Daine Kannemeyer, 13 Kurt Eybers, 12 William Eybers, 11 Nicolus van Eeden, 10 Christo Hamman (captain), 9 Eckard Leicher, 8 Renaldo Ferreira, 7 Hanno Olivier, 6 Bertie de Bod, 5 Ewan Coetzee, 4 Daniel Victor, 3 Andre Posthumus, 2 HP van Schoor, 1 Hermanus Botha.
Replacements: 16 Marko van der Merwe, 17 Chrisjan du Toit, 18 Jaco Smit, 19 WP van Heerden, 20 Zinedine Booysen, 21 Alex Wallace, 22 Xavier Swartbooi.
Referee: Rodney Boneparte
Assistant referees: Local
