Preview: Landboudal vs Augsburg
Classic Clashes are once again upon us with Landboudal taking on Augsburg Landbou this Saturday.
The match will be unique in that it is the first time these two teams are playing against each other with the schools almost 850km apart. Landboudal are situated in Jacobsdal in the Free Sate and Augsburg Landbou are from Clanwilliam in the Western Cape.
With his team never having been involved in a Classic Clash, Landboudal's coach Etienne van den Brink called his friend JP van Rhyn, who is the coach of Augsburg and an application was sent through to setup the match.
While it will be difficult to call a winner, Landboudal go into this match looking the favourites as they have a much more experienced team than their counterparts. Captain Teubes Brits has been part of the first team for the past three years and has represented Griquas at Craven Week.
Flank Windhond Pienaar and scrumhalf CD Wilke were part of Landboudal's team last year and they will be valuable considering that they are missing some teammates through injury.
Landboudal have not had the best of seasons so far however, and have suffered a number of losses, including a 0-71 drubbing at the hands of Oakdale recently.
They are expecting a physically hard, fast and intimidating match from their opponents on Saturday, but believe that their recent struggles and injuries have pulled them closer together.
Augsburg, on the other hand, go into this encounter with three wins from five, with their two losses coming against Strand and Upington.
The team from the Western Cape is a young one with ten of their starting 15 still in Grade 11. They do still have experience in key positions, but will be without hooker Jacques du Plessis and flank Junior Grobbelaar, who are important cogs in the team.
Augsburg are working hard to build a team with the large number of youngsters at their disposal and are starting to have more structure in their play with glimpses of their potential starting to come through.
They will be looking at Landboudal's thrashing at the hands of Oakdale closely to find some solutions to counter their opponent’s physicality up front.
Teams:
Landboudal: 15 Spyker Schmidt, 14 DJ Jacobs, 13 David du Plessis, 12 Yster Bezuidenhout, 11 Vellies van der Merwe, 10 Tiaan van Wyk, 9 CD Wilke, 8 Teubes Brits (captain), 7 Windhond Pienaar, 6 Pomp Scholtz, 5 Jokie Brits, 4 Marlin van Zyl, 3 Snowball Mnweba, 2 Jongboer du Plessis, 1 Panda Oosthuizen.
Replacements: 16 Krappies Engela, 17 Pieter Botha, 18 Alro du Pisanie, 19 Conradt Blaauw, 20 CA Menezes, 21 Hendrie Brits, 22 Willie Mans, 23 Nguni Marais.
Augsburg Landbou: 15 Keith Nel, 14 Mannsell Visagie, 13 Matthys Mouton, 12 Warren Basson, 11 Anthony Golding, 10 Waldimar Cockrill, 8 Bruwer van Zyl (captain), 7 Tom Malan, 6 Jacques Hugo, 5 MC Veldsman, 4 Willem Coetzee, 3 Heinrich van Wyk, 2 Roderick Jansen, 1 Henrico von Litzenburg.
Replacements: 16 Jean du Preez, 17 Jandré Theron, 18 Rickus Faul, 19 Johan Augustyn, 20 Vlok van Jaarsveld, 21 Kevin Channon.
Referee: Khotso Raleting
