KZN teams at Grey's Festival
The season may be young but after a very promising start for all six KwaZulu-Natal schools participating in this year's Grey High School Rugby Festival in Port Elizabeth, it's little wonder that there is a great deal of optimism about in local schools rugby circles at the moment.
Four teams, Westville, DHS, Kearsney and Maritzburg College will arrive in the Friendly City with "unbeaten" tags on.
Although the other two, Hilton and Michaelhouse both suffered narrow defeats over the past weekend, when the strength of their match-day opponents (Westville and Glenwood respectively) is taken into account, it still translates into a very good start for two schools that were well below par in 2011.
With many traditionally very tough to beat schools forming part of the line-up at Grey High again this year, the festival provides the KwaZulu-Natal's schools rugby system with a first real opportunity to gain a measure of their strength at a national level.
Westville, Hilton College and DHS have what looks to be the toughest matchday one assignments out of all the KwaZulu-Natal teams.
Westville have thus far proven that they have what it takes to do well in this season's national rankings. Nevertheless they may still have to lift their game up another level to come out on top against South African powerhouse Paul Roos Gymnasium from Stellenbosch in the Western Cape.
Hilton have their work cut out for them if they want to down the other Western Cape big guns in the form of Bishops. Bishops are known to play a beautiful expansive game at times, meaning that it will be in Hilton's best interests to starve the Bishops backs of quality ball. At the same time, Hilton needs to seek out ways to extract the maximum benefit from having two or three classy players in their own backline.
DHS should have an interesting encounter against highly rated Queens College. "School" has averaged over 30-points per game from their three matches to date, indicating that their attack is firing on all cylinders at present. However in their most recent game, Queens amassed 75-points while DHS has been a bit leaky on defence in their last couple of outings. So if DHS hope to stand any chance of causing an upset and remaining unbeaten, a hugely improved resistance will have to show up for this match.
Michaelhouse and St Andrew's are matched against each other in the battle of the private schools. Both have tasted the good life of being top ranked rugby schools at some point in the last five years and although that goal might be out of reach in 2012, spectators can still look forward to a high quality match which Michaelhouse stands a very good chance of winning.
Based on recent form, Maritzburg College and Kearsney are the firm favourites to beat their first round Eastern Cape rivals Marlow and Nico Malan. Although both visiting teams to the region are expecting greater challenges on match-day 2, it will be unwise to be preoccupied with these next matches or to underestimate their opening match opponents who play with a lot of heart.
Grey's three-day festival amounts to one of the most entertaining school's rugby packages on offer in the country, making it well worth the time and effort for anyone able to attend.
Festival fixtures - Day One:
Saturday, 24 March:
On Philip Field
08.30: Nico Malan vs Kearsney
10.00: St Andrew's College vs Michaelhouse
11.30: Paul Roos vs Westville
13.00: Selborne College vs Framesby
14.30: Hilton College vs Bishops
16.00: Grey High vs SACS
On Pollock Field
08.30: Graeme College vs Itembelihle
10.00: Louis Botha vs Die Brandwag
11.30: Queen's College vs Durban High School
13.00: Maritzburg College vs Marlow
14.30: Dale College vs Daniël Pienaar
On Pyott Field
08.30: Muir Under-14 vs Eezy Fana
09.30: Daniel Pienaar Under-14 vs St Andrew's
10.30: St Andrew's Under-15 vs Muir
11.30: St Andrew's Under-16 vs Eezy Fana
By Beet