Selborne go up to Queen's

Selborne, Dale and Queen's are great old schools and matches amongst them are always keenly contested.

Queen's is older than Selborne, founded in 1858, 14 years before their East London friends, but Selborne started playing rugby before Queen's who were at first the thralls of soccer. Queen's changed in 1920 and have been playing Selborne with increasing enthusiasm since 1925.

To make this occasion even more special there is a huge reunion - the year of the sixes, 1966's 50th anniversary of leaving school. Amongst those present are Sammy Gunn (an Old Queenian of 1966 vintage and former Headmaster of Selborne) and Steve Woodford, a veteran of over 9000 jumps, who will be skydiving between the second XV and first XV matches, from a plane piloted by an Old Queenian of 1973 vintage, Ken Clark.

The Season

Both Selborne and Queen's have played six matches. Queen's lost to Kingswood and Jeppe while Selborne won five and drew with SACS.

At present, Selborne are ranked sixth on the Top 20, Queen's 19th,

Experience

Three of the Queen's players were at Craven Week last year - Bulele Sotyelelwa for Border and Asithandile Mrubata and Siya Jwacu for Border Country Districts.

From Selborne, Sango Xamlashe and Leon Lyons went to Craven Week and Afika Ndinisa, David Coetzer, Miles Norton and Sibahle Kuhlane went to the Grant Komo Week when the Border side was almost a Selborne side.

Rugby Programme

Recreation Ground

12.40: Third XV

13.50: Second XV

15.30: First XV

Parry East

09.00: Sixth XV

10.10: Fifth XV

11.20: Fourth XV

TW Higgs

11.00: Seventh XV

Parry West

09.00: Under-14A

10.00: Under-15A

11.00: Under-16A

Wilkie East

09.00: Under-16B

10.10: Under-15C

11.10: Under-16C

Wilkie West

09.00: Under-15B

10.00: Under-14B

11.00: Under-14B

1st XVs

Queen's: 15 Aviwe Mancotywa, 14 Mihlali Peter (captain), 16 Chris Hollis, 12 Ilano Smith, 11 Asithandile Mbubata, 10 Bulela Sotyelelwa, 9 Gareth Greyvenbstein, 8 Cameron Cato, 7 Siya Jwacu, 6 Bryan Bless, 5 Tristan Waller, 4 Aaron Brody,  3 Sitsaba Mayake, 2 Gareth Heidtmann, 1 Dale Venske.

Coaches: David Bolze, Clinton Löest.

Selborne: 15 Miles Norton, 14 Josh Armstrong, 13 Sibahle Khulane, 12 Sango Xambashe (captain), 11 Afika Ndinisai, 10 David Coetzer, 9 James Bruce, 8 Darren Lemmer, 7 Adan Mountford, 6 Alex Greig, 5 Storme Snelling, 4 Brandon du Toit, 3 Leon Lyons, 2 Mila Bomela, 1 Sande Msengane.

Coach: Kevin Taylor.

Date: April, 16

First XV kick-off: 25.30

Venue: Recreation Ground, Queen's College

Expected weather conditions: Sunny with a high of 30°C, dropping to 13°C