Not so easy for Boishaai
Boys' High finished their regular season unbeaten. They played no fewer than 10 of the top 20 ranked schools in South Africa and only six of their fixtures were at home.
This Boishaai outfit will go down in history as one of their finest teams in the rugby powerhouse's distinguished history. With no fewer than five SA schools representative, seven Craven Week players in the all conquering Western Province team and another two in the Western Province Academy side, it is no wonder that this side has done so well. Added to this, some astute coaching by Sean Erasmus (SA Schools’ forwards coach) and Elmo Wolfaardt (Western Province Cruyven Week head coach) this made the Paarl outfit the unstoppable force that they are.
This match against Drostdy also served as a semifinal for the newly-named Maties Top Rugby Schools (formerly Die Burger) competition. The top schools of Eastern Province, South Western Districts, Boland and Western Province compete in this competition. The finals, which comprise small, medium and large schools, will be played this coming Saturday at the Danie Craven Stadium. Boishaai will play in the large schools’ final against Outeniqua of South Western Districts.
Coming back to this match, Boishaai had to fight all the way against their tenacious hosts, who managed to turn over possession in broken play, with the flank Aristo Nolan doing most of the damage. Some over-elaboration in the line-out calls also resulted in a number of lost balls in the normally sound Boishaai set piece. Then also, most of the visiting backs had a strangely off day, with some sloppy play and poor handling.
The only players of the visitors, the winners, that kept their reputations intact were prop Wikus Groenewald, lock David Meihuizen and fullback Jeanluc Cilliers.
For Drostdy, who fully deserved huge plaudits for their never-say-die attitude, Aristo Nolan and Albert Liebenberg (flanks) put their bodies on the line. Both locks SJ Wessels and Erik Groenewald excelled against their more illustrious opponents. Prop Pieter Stassen defended well and made some crunching tackles. In the home team's backline powerful inside centre George Muller proved to be a handful.
Scorers:
For Drostdy:
Tries: Direnzo Phillips, George Muller
Con: Gevin Scheepers
For Paarl Boys' High:
Tries: Hanri van Heerden, Jeanluc Cilliers
Cons: Jeanluc Cilliers 2
Pen: Jeanluc Cilliers
Teams
Drostdy: 15 Gevin Scheepers, 14 Juan Witbooi, 13 Theodore Pienaar, 12 George Muller, 11 Direnzo Phillips, 10 Lynthen Barties, 9 Corné Prins, 8 Jurie Fick, 7 Albert Liebenberg, 6 Aristo Nolan, 5 SJ Wessels, 4 Erik Groenewald, 3 Rossouw Prins, 2 Zandré Fernhout,1 Pieter Stassen.
Paarl Boys' High: 15 Jeanluc Cillie, 14 Tyreeq February, 13 Jan Louis la Grange, 12 Hanri van Heerden, 11 Urgene Johannes, 10 Rayhaan Lombaard, 9 Bradley Thain, 8 Khanya Ncusane, 7 Ruan van der Merwe, 6 Andreas van Wyk (captain), 5 Ruben de Villiers, 4 David Meihuizen, 3 Leo Kruger, 2 MC de Jongh, 1 Wikus Groenewald
By Leon Kruger
