Grey High Festival, Day 2

Two of the matches – Graeme vs St Alban's and DHS vs Garsfontein – had thrilling finishes with the winner decided at the death.,

 

There were some comfortable wins but only one that was a runaway victory, and that was the opening match of the day.

 

In that match St David's, the Marist school in Inanda in Johannesburg's northern suburbs, were much too good for Muir College of Uitenhage, scoring eighth tries to one in winning 48-5.

 

Agile Seb Riva scored two tries.

 

time was up and Graeme College were leading St Alban's of Pretoria 15-10 when Graeme became their own opponents. time was up but they were penalised twice. On each occasion, St Alban's set up line-outs and mauled. They were moving the second maul right up to the Graeme line. Down it went and off the referee went to award a penalty try, which gave St Alban's a 17-15 victory.

 

St Stithians were too good for Die Brandwag of Uitenhage, winning 44-28 in a game of much movement and endeavour.

 

Selborne were surprisingly much too good for Jeppe. For the first time in nine matches Jeppe were beaten, and beaten well, 19-3

 

The match between Parktown Boys' High and Hudson Park was a close affair, the Johannesburg side winning 31-24.

 

With six minutes to play DHS were leading Garsfontein 26-21. But in a series of tight, one-pass phases, Garsies bulldozed their way up field. A penalty for a high tackle, gave them an attacking line-out. That became a scrum, well to Garsfontein's right.

 

Garsies got a shove on and scrumhalf passed to flyhalf. Flyhalf Keagan Johannes dummied and accelerated between two defenders and he burst over for the try. 26-26. It was not a hard conversion, and Johannes kicked it to make the score  28-26 in Garsfontein's favour.

 

There were still two minutes to play and DHS were determined but the defence gave them no leeway.

 

The last match, between Grey and KES, was expected to be a climax to the festival and to many it was. Grey won 33-17 which suggests a comfortable win but the difference between the two sides was not that size, except for one telling aspect: Grey took every chance they had to score; KES did not.

 

Grey's left wing, Andrew Dalgleish scored two of his side's five tries, the second the last act of the game.

 

Again its was a great weekend. 139 teas from  69 schools played 86 matches. That alone is a startling statistic.

 

Praise enthusiastic schoolmasters.

 

 

 

Die Brandwag vs Stirling, 14-0

Garsfontein vs Nico Malan, 32-22

Grey vs St John’s, 38-3

Grey Unicorns vs Itembilhele, 26-10

Hudson Park vs Louis Botha, 39-24

Jeppe vs Dale, 12-10

Kingswood vs St David’s, 56-5

Marlow vs Graeme, 30-5

Parktown vs Daniël Pienaar, 26-19

Queen’s vs St Stithians, 21-17

Selborne vs KES, 29-3

St Alban’s vs Muir, 22-17

St Andrew’s vs DHS, 31-15

Woodridge vs Otto du Plessis, 10-10

 

 

Dale vs Daniël Pienaar, 32-5

Garsfontein vs DHS, 29-26

Grey vs KES, 33-17

Grey Unicorns vs Otto du Plessis, 40-7

Kingswood vs St John’s, 12-10

Marlow vs Louis Botha, 73-0

Parktown vs Hudson Park, 31-24

Selborne vs Jeppe, 19-3

St Alban’s vs Graeme, 17-15

St David’s vs Muir, 48-5

St Stithians vs Die Brandwag, 44-28