WP Schools Day Results
It has been hot and dry for a long time and then summer stopped and the Cape skipped autumn and went straight to winter, and winter at Newlands, the wettest part of South Africa started on Tuesday, Schools Day.
The matches – 20 minutes-a-side with no kicks at poles – between the four country sides and the four southern suburbs sides ended two-all.
Results
Milnerton vs President, 15-10
Wynberg vs Boland Landbou, 10-5
Paul Roos vs SACS, 25-0
Paarl Gim vs Rondebosch, 25-10
Bishops vs Paarl Boys’ High, 10-0
Wynberg vs Boland Landbou, 10-5
This is one of the smaller Landbou sides we have seen and they were always going to be tested by the well organised and very experienced Wynberg outfit. Wynberg have most of their team back from last year and with a committed tight-five, a strong spine to their team (8-9-10) and the huge boot of fullback Karl Martin they are going to be very difficult to beat in 2014. They haven't beaten a Boland school in the past two seasons but it would take a brave man to be against that happening in 2014. They started their season with a win of sorts (20 minutes-a-side doesn't really count,) but they will surely convert that to a 70-minute win later in the year.
Boland have good backs who will hopefully fire for them later in the season. Last night they just made too many errors to test a resolute Wynberg defence.
Paul Roos vs SACS, 25-0
Paul Roos won this game convincingly thanks largely to their nippy scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies who created their first two tries with sniping runs from the base of rucks. Despite the scoreline the Paul Roos coaches would not have been happy with their overall performance. Moments of individual brilliance and poor defence by SACS allowed them to score five relatively easy tries. There was very little constructive build-up play but the lovely offloads that were a feature of their backs play were certainly a joy to watch.
SACS struggled in the scrums and couldn't get out of their half but generally lacked the physicality required in defence and at ruck time to live with Paul Roos who also had two competitive games under their belt while SACS had none.
Paarl Gim vs Rondebosch, 25-10
Rondebosch gave a very good account of themselves against the mighty Paarl Gim. The Bosch boys were plucky and showed great work rate in defence, making Gim work hard for their points. That said, one always felt that Gim had more in the tank were it required and that they may have been holding back a bit with Affies and Grey Bloem appearing soon on their fixture list.
Both teams had yet to play a full competitive match but both quickly got into their structures. Rondebosch have some big boys up front and matched Gim for a while in the contact areas but the fleet-footed Gim backs capitalised fully when the opportunities arose and proved the difference between the teams on the night.
Bishops vs Paarl Boys’ High, 10-0
This result was a huge upset and new Boishaai coach Sean Erasmus will be pouring over the video footage and pulling his hair out. As poor as Boishaai were, Bishops were brilliant! Boishaai have played already this year while Bishops have not, which makes the result and the manner of the win even more astonishing.
Bishops threw the ball around, clearly enjoying the space provided by the wide field at Newlands. There was no lack of grunt either and they defended strongly when the need arose. New prop JP Smit put himself about but flank Mervano da Silva was their stand-out player. The backs passed the ball beautifully and it was hard to believe this was their first competitive outing. It seems the Boys in Blue (last night – white) and well and truly back in 2014! Full credit must go to “new” coach André Jacobs and his assistants Mike Bayly and Wes Chetty for what they have done in such a short space of time to bring this team together.
Boishaai were extremely poor on the night and didn't look as if they knew if they were a team who plays predominantly with their forwards or their backs. In the end when they were searching for a try they reverted largely to forward runners and the pick-and-go. When they took the ball wide they were forced into mistakes by a hungry and organised Bishops defence.
It was a great game and one almost can't wait for the rematch which will take place only on 26 July, the weekend before Interskole!
