Final FNB Top 20 for 2009

After producing and studying a multitude of statistics, we come to the final FNB Top 20 for 2009 with, unsurprisingly, Grey College on top.

It does not take much to realise that it is not an absolute ranking but it has the virtue of provoking a lot of interest and it does strive to reward those who do well.

The interest this year has been enormous, probably the most intense since we started doing it at the turn of the century.

A lot of the interest has been fun but sadly there are some who get it out of proportion and use the rankings to vent nasty feelings on other schools. It would be so much healthier if we realised that loyal support of one's own school does not require denigration of some other school or schools.

During 2009 33 schools have feature on the FNB Top 20. They are Grey College, Waterkloof, Affies, Outeniqua, Paul Roos, Paarl Boys' High, Glenwood, KES, Marlow, Monument, Bishops, Grey High, Selborne, Wynberg, Queen's College, Paarl Gim, AHS Kroonstad, Die Brandwag, St Andrew's, Framesby, Boland Landbou, Michaelhouse, Westville, Rustenburg, Centurion, Noord-Kaap, Oakdale, Goudveld, Klerksdorp, Dr EG Jansen, Rondebosch, Drostdy and Tygerberg.

In addition 15 other schools came close to being on the FNB Top 20 - Daniël Pienaar, Landboudal, Wilgerivier, Hilton, Maritzburg College, Eldoraigne, Florida, Kemptonpark, Duineveld, Diamantveld, Upington, Voortrekker (Bethlehem), Ben Vorster and Merensky.

The FNB Top 20s during the season are influenced directly by what has happened in the previous week. The final FNB Top 20 is not some sort of average of what happened week by week but rather an attempted appraisal of the whole season, taking into consideration the matches played and the strength of the opposition.

The 2009 FNB Top 20

1. Grey College
2. Outeniqua
3. Paul Roos
4. Paarl Boys' High
5. Monument
6. Affies
7. Glenwood
8. Marlow
9. KES
10. Waterkloof
11. Wynberg
12. Selborne
13. Bishops
14. Grey High
15. St Andrew's
16. Noord-Kaap
17. AHS Kroonstad
18. Paarl Gim
19. Die Brandwag
20. Dr EG Jansen, Boland Landbou, Framesby

Those who came close to the final FNB Top 20: Michaelhouse, Westville, Tygerberg, Klerksdorp, Oakdale, Rondebosch, Diamantveld and Drostdy.