Kwaggas in Struisiesdag win

Struisiesdag 2012 has come and gone, and what a successful day it was. Without a doubt it was the best “Interskole” between Oudtshoorn and Outeniqua that I have attended with a great atmosphere and camaraderie between the schools.

It was really gratifying to at one stage see Warwick Galant sitting, with his Outeniqua cap on, next to Ganfried May, with his Oudtshoorn cap on, and having a long chat. On the field opponents, but off the field friends. Great, that’s what it should be all about.

Another interesting occurrence was that Joppie Fourie who has walked ten million steps for cancer (https://www.facebook.com/#!/joppie.tenmillionstepsforcancer) completed his walk on Saturday in Oudtshoorn, his home town.  He is an Old Struisie and before heading to his final destination he came through the school grounds to a standing ovation. A man who is a real inspiration!

There were parachutists, champagne girls, cheerleaders arriving in army vehicles and so on but let’s turn to the rugby.

68-14 pretty much sums it up unfortunately as it was a rather one-sided affair. There was just simply too much class in the Outeniqua backline and Oudtshoorn had no answers to stop the gaps opening up. With all but two players in the backline of Outeniqua in grade 11 and all of these grade elevens having either South Western Districts or SA colours, one wonders where this team can go next year. A mouth-watering prospect.

The score however does not reflect the dogged determination that Oudtshoorn played with and they really never gave up, well at least not until Duhan van der Merwe’s last try which was a great individual effort where he beat the entire Oudtshoorn team to score from well inside his own half. But this was the last move of the game and I think Oudtshoorn were spent at this point.

The two Oudtshoorn tries were both scored from phase play and they showed the patience and maturity that is needed to score tries particularly when faced by enormous odds. This has been a hallmark of Bernie Deacon’s coaching career at Oudtshoorn and he has year in and year out taken a group of boys and molded them into a unit and will be sorely missed I am sure.  I think everyone will wish him well as he heads into a new chapter in his life.

The Oudtshoorn forwards and particularly their loose forwards and Hooker must be commended for their continuous efforts in the loose and tight loose. Again an area where the opposing team gained some level of equality with Outeniqua. This was not through Outeniqua taking a back step it must be noted, but Oudtshoorn just played their hearts out and particularly John Church and Jolin Saptou must be commended. On the Outeniqua side Dean van Vuuren was his usual boisterous self, throwing his body into loose mauls and tackles like a man possessed. And what can one say about Tinus Vermeulen except that if you are ever looking for a captain to lead men, and lead from the front, this is your man.  A humble, polite, exceptional young man!

The most pleasing aspect of the match for me was again the manner in which Outeniqua took absolute control of the tight phases of the game. Both the scrums and line-outs were again exceptional. The technical aspects of this team this year has been impressive to watch, particularly as the side has grown in their execution of these aspects. Emile Cloete was as he was last week excellent and Martin Oosthuizen, Roche Steenkamp and Henco du Preez completely dominated the Oudtshoorn Front Row. This continued after Stefaan Grundlingh replaced du Preez and he being in Grade 11 made this particularly pleasing from an Outeniqua point of view.

A comment needs to be made on the laws/refereeing of the scrums at schoolboy level as something that was concerning was that Outeniqua kept getting pinged for scrumming errors which were due more to their being just far too strong for their opposition rather than their actually scrumming illegally. This is a problem that I have noticed before and is often caused by the restriction placed on schoolboy scrumming. While these restrictions are clearly necessary to protect the boys, should we not have referees rather calling for uncontested scrums than penalising the stronger scrum?? Just saying.

Not much needs to be said about this backline of Outeniqua. They are just exceptional, from 9-15 and those players coming off the bench. It must be noted that Outeniqua yesterday had players coming off the bench who are contracted to unions after school already. Exceptional and this with players who have all (as far as I am aware) been at Outeniqua from their full high school careers.

As you can see from the scorers below the two SA Schools players repeatedly troubled the scorers with eight of the ten tries being scored by the backline.

In my opinion the player of the Match was without any doubt Roche Steenkamp who had the best match I have ever seen him play. Three tight heads, no line-outs lost on his own ball, ferocious tackling and just a general nuisance to the opposition.  He was selected as the Outeniqua rugby player of the day and he fully deserves the plaudit.

All in all a most successful day and all credit To Mr Claassen and the team at Oudtshoorn for a great day of entertainment.

Scorers:

For Outeniqua:

Tries:  Tiaan Vermeulen, Duhan van der Merwe 4, Warwick Galant 2, Dewald Human 2, Martin Oosthuizen

Cons:  Warwick Galant 9, Leighton Eksteen

For Oudtshoorn:

Tries: Chris du Toit, Wynand Kuhn

Cons: Divan Nel

The teams:

Outeniqua: 15 Marius Venter, 14 Michael Cloete, 13 Douw Schoeman, 12 Warrick Gelant, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Dewald Human, 9 Leighton Eksteen, 8 Tinus Vermeulen  (captain), 7 Lian van Schalkwyk, 6 Dean van Vuuren, 5 Jurgens Schoeman, 4 Emile Cloete, 3 Henco du Preez, 2 Roche Steenkamp, 1 Martin Oosthuizen  (vice-captain)

Replacements: 16 Marne Botha, 17 Stefaan Grundlingh, 18 Hendri Storm, 19 Geor Malan, 20 Remu Malan, 21 Hennie Barnard, 22 Wilhelm Esterhuizen

Coaches: Pieter Cloete; Martin Oosthuizen, Jacques Wolfaardt

Oudtshoorn: 15 Luther du Toit, 14 Jaden Onkers, 13 Divan Nel (vice-captain), 12 Dean January, 11 Wynand Kuhn, 10 Chris du Toit, 9 Matthew Nortjé, 8 Jolin Saptou, 7 John Church, 6 Godfrey Fourie, 5 Rossouw du Toit, 4 Stefan Lategan,  3 Marco Theron, 2 John-Henry Schmitt (captain), 1 Walt Böhme.

Coaches: Bernie Deacon, Jaco Ungerer, Hennie van Greunen

Referee: G Roelfse (South Western Districts Referees' Society)