The Battle of the 50's
Menlopark will host St Albans in another FNB Classic Clash on Wednesday evening in Pretoria which will mark the 50th anniversary of each school.
The Parkies boys have produced some great rugby throughout the season and seem to be getting better and better as the season goes on.
Head coach Dean van der Watt said: "We have had a great season so far having only lost three of our 10 games played so far."
The side from Pretoria did not have a game last weekend but they had a great win against Eldoraigne the week prior – beating them 36-22.
The season did not start too well for Menlopark as they went down in their opening two matches but since then they have gone from strength to strength and in the last eight have only lost one.
St Albans played against St Charles over this past weekend and got a good win but Van der Watt is not going to look too deeply into that result.
"We want to focus on ourselves and so I am not going to worry too much about their [St Albans] win over St Charles," he added.
With players involved in the Bulls trials over the past week has given them a slight rest but it has also kept the players match-fit and ready for the clash on Wednesday.
St Albans have had a fairly good season so far and have only lost two games this year, going down the St Stithians and Wynberg.
Their best win this season, according to the coaching staff, came against Hilton when they won 26-25 at the St Stithians rugby festival.
This Pretoria derby is going to be an interesting affair and St Albans will be hoping that they can recify the 35-23 loss they suffered last season.
The teams:
Menlopark: 15 Ruan de Beer, 14 Armand Buys, 13 Sean Smit, 12 Bingle Cloete (captain), 11 Walter Groenewald, 10 Marco Donges, 9 Louis Storm, 8 Marco Sauer, 7 Jean Olivier, 6 Justin Meintjies, 5 Armand De Beer, 4 Arnold Gerber, 3 Rohan Goosen, 2 Willem Ludike, 1 Wybren Hiemstra.
Replacements: 16 JJ Swanepoel 17 CJ De Wet18 Simon Kamstra19 Jacques Oosthuizen 20 Estian Storm 21 Jeandre van der Walt 22 Thristan Theron.
St Albans: TBC
Date: Wednesday, May 15
Venue: Menlopark
Kick-off: 19.30
Expected weather: Cool evening expected in Pretoria but it will be clear with temperatures around the 18°C mark.
