St John's Easter Festival - Day 2

Huge win for Waterkloof

In perfect weather yet again, within an even bigger crowd than Thursday's record crowd at St John's, the great School's Easter Festival went into its second day.

There was good news from Day 1. Divan Prinsloo of Nelspruit was taken off on a stretcher with his neck stabilised, but St John's are happy to report that he is "absolutely fine". And his side had a big win in the first match over Parktown.

St John's Johannesburg vs Dale, 25-6

A poor performance by Dale College deprived the large home crowd at St. John’s of a chance to see their team really play. To their credit Dale were keen to move the ball even from inside their own half, but they made so many handling errors in the backs it ended up costing them dearly. When on defence they incurred the wrath of the referee at almost every breakdown, which didn’t help matters either.

Consequently St. John’s were happy to play for territory via the pin-point boot of flyhalf Demetri Catrakilis as they could rely on Dale making a handling error or conceding a penalty and take the points on offer. St. John’s were obviously very keen to win the game as even when they got reasonably far ahead they continued to kick the goals. One may have expected them to begin giving their vocal support something other than penalty goal to cheer about. That said though the got the job done and with Catrakilis in such great form with the boot who could blame them.

Apart from Catrakilis who must have been the man-of-the-match, hooker James Sklar-Chik was prominent for St. Johns. St. John’s try was scored by tight-head prop Suna Kagga and also came from an error by Dale in their 22.

Overall the match was not much of a spectacle and both sides will be hoping to end the tournament with more complete performances on Monday.

Scorers:

For St John's
Try: Suna Kagga
Con: Demetri Catrakilis
Pens:  Demetri Catrakilis  6

For Dale College:
Pens: Jaques van Coller 2

Paul Roos Gymnasium vs Marais Viljoen, 26-13

This was a game of two halves. Paul Roos started like a house on fire and looked like running up a big score. Their forwards were dominant in all aspects and were particularly impressive in the scrums. Their backs also looked sharp with the back-three full of running.

It was a member of the back-three left-wing Jesse Nowers, wearing No.14, who got their first score after a good attack on the blind-side. Then massive prop Stehan Hamman, supposedly weighing in at 151kgs, took over much to the delight of the large crowd. He ran in two tries, one from 30 metres out, as Marais Viljoen looked shell-shocked. Leading 19-nil Paul Roos were guilty of trying to overelaborate. Twice they were close to scoring but opted for an unnecessary 50/50 pass. The score remained 19-nil until half time.

Marais Viljoen dominated the second half and scored two very good tries. Paul Roos’s line-out went to pieces and their pack looked to run out of steam slightly in the thinner highveld air. Marais Viljoen deserved points for their valiant effort and they came eventually via a long range drop goal from fullback Hardus Viljoen.

Marais Viljoen dominated the second half and scored two very good tries. Paul Roos’s lineout went to pieces and their pack looked to run out of steam slightly in the thinner highveld air. Marais Viljoen deserved points for their valiant effort and they came eventually via a long range drop goal from fullback Hardus Viljoen. Their tries came from right-wing Gerhard barnard who chipped through neatly for himself and later after a searing break from Jeandre Williams he threw a brilliant blind pass to Rikus de Villiers who ran in the score.

Man of the match Siyasanga Mkiva scored the last try for Paul Roos after a charge down in the Marais Viljoen 22m-area.

Paul Roos will be happy with their win but Marais Viljoen arguably deserve more credit for their committed effort throughout.

Scorers:

For Paul Roos:
Tries:  Stephan Hamman 2, Siyasanga Mkiva, Jesse Nowers
Cons: Coenie van Wyk 3

For Marais Viljoen:
Tries:  Rikus de Villiers, Gerhard Barnard
Drop: Hardus Viljoen

Waterkloof vs Golden Lions Development XV, 75-3

Waterkloof proved way to strong for the composite team from the Golden Lions.

Waterkloof got off to a rampant start and never let up the pressure. The Lions XV continued to infringe the laws in almost every phase of play and the penalties mounted at a rate of one every two minutes. Throw in two free kicks and it was a very stop start half.

Fortunately Waterkloof were so superior that they were able to remain positive. They tapped penalties and kicked into the opposition 22 when ever they could, otherwise the match would not have been much of a spectacle at all. Waterkloof scored five tries in the first half.

The best try came when left-wing Aubrey McDonald looped around onto the right and took a beautiful torpedo pass from Waterkloof flyhalf François Brummer. He had too much pace for the cover and raced past 2 Lions defenders to score in the right corner. SA Schools centre Stefan Watermeyer converted two of the tries and one penalty to leave the half-time score 32-3 to Waterkloof.

Waterkloof went two tries better in the second half scoring seven unanswered tries. The Lions looked a despondent bunch and the penalty count was marginally less only due to the fact that the Lions competed with less vigour. Waterkloof were very impressive and maintained their attacking momentum throughout. Their loose forwards, in particular No.6 Manus Schoeman, were particularly impressive and their support play allowed Waterkloof to play with great continuity. Schoeman and loose-head Corné’ Fourie, who had a brilliant first half especially, were the men of the match.

Overall a very impressive performance from Waterkloof. One looks forward to seeing them up against some strong opposition soon.

Scorers:

For Waterkloof:
Tries: Louis Roos 2, Corné Fourie 2, Wynand Willis, Manus Schoeman 2, Aubrey McDonald, François Brummer, Thabo Motau, Willie Nel, Rudolf Kruger
Cons: Stefan Watermeyer 2, François Brummer 4
Penalty: Stefan Watermeyer

For Golden Lions XV
Penalty: Grant Benton

FNB Invitation XV vs St. John’s Harare, 20-19

In a slightly scrappy affair the FNB Invitation XV maintained their unbeaten record at the festival. The contrasting styles though made for an entertaining match.

St. John’s were intent on playing structured rugby. Driving line-outs, using backrow moves and then bringing their loose-forwards into play inside and outside their flyhalf. They did this well and patches and also executed some good pick-and-go routines but whenever they had to release the ball in search of a try their execution let them down.

The FNB Invitation XV played an unstructured game and tried to run the ball as much as they could. That said flyhalf Bradwell Swartz showed a good head for the game and calmed things down with some raking touch-finders when it was required. The FNB Invitation XV’s first try came from a well-worked line-out move. Hooker Fortuin looping around and executing a switch with flank Elrick Kroutz, who crashed over in the corner. Their third try was brilliant, if slightly lucky, as fullback Ethan Marthinus was on the end of a move that involved both an audacious chip and switch. The half-time score was 17-6 to the FNB Invitation XV.

In the second half St. John’s came out with the greater urgency, while the FNB Invitation XV’s discipline began to let them down. Penalties conceded at close range allowed St. John’s to pull the score back to 12-20 with 10 minutes remaining. With three minutes left St. John’s were awarded a scrum on the FNB Invitation XV 22. They eventually managed to execute a move on the blindside. A Classic 8/9/15/14 seeing replacement wing Timothy Pope go over in the corner. Centre Ryan Argyros was on target and St. John’s had one minute to try and score. They were unable to do so and the FNB Invitation XV got out of jail after looking a tired team for most of the second half.

Scorers:

For FNB Invitation XV:
Tries: Elrick Kroutz, Redowhan Steyn, Ethan Marthinus
Cons: Bradwell Swartz 
Pen: Bradwell Swartz

For St John’s Harare:
Try: Timothy Pope
Con: Robert Argyros
Penalties: Robert Argyros 3, Raymond de Jongh

Nelspruit vs Parktown, 31-6

Nelspruit led just 12-6 at half-time but dominated the second half.

Scorers:

For Nelspruit:
Tries:  Righardt Jordaan 2, Ruan Janse van Vuuren, Chris Botha, Luan Fourie
Cons:  Marnitz Boshoff 3

For Parktown :
Pens: Richard Hope 2

Prep School Result

Clifton vs The Ridge, 24-12