Easter weekend delivers in style: Festival Round Up Part 2 - Gauteng Edition
Schoolboy rugby shone bright these past few days, as four Festivals took center stage over the Easter Period
(The fast feet of SACS’s Quewinn Lackay caused havoc throughout the weekend at St. John's Festival, scoring a superb solo try vs St. Davids on Day One - Photo Credits: https://www.stjohnscollege.co.za/rugbyfestival )
The Easter long weekend fired on all cylinders once more. With dramatic draws and dominant displays, Kearsney College was joined by three Gauteng schools in presenting quality festival action. From Gauteng; we saw St. John’s College, St. Stithians and King Edward School host their respective rugby festivals. With so much happening all at once, this is your recap from the province of Gauteng.
Kicking off with the 28th edition of St. John’s rugby festival, 14 schools from around the country traveled to partake in some exciting affairs over the weekend. Stand-out names from the 3 days of action included the likes of SACS, Pretoria Boys’ High, Hilton College, Maritzburg, Nelspruit and Graeme College. Day One’s action saw Hilton topple the hosts 29-5, Pretoria Boys and Maritzburg scoring 40 plus points in easy wins for each and Western Cape’s SACS seeing off St. Davids 28-3 with a fantastic forward pack display and a 100% conversion rate from flyhalf Michael Skeeles. However, the stand out fixture from the festival was played under the lights on Day One. Nelspruit and Welkom gave the fans watching an enthralling encounter. The see-saw match would eventually see scrumhalf Liam Pringle score a pressurized penalty well into stoppage time to win the game for the Mbombela side, 34-31. Day Two carried on the action well with St. Johns bouncing back with a 33-24 victory against Randburg, Hilton making it 2 wins from 2, this time against Kingswood, and both Pretoria Boys and Maritzburg experiencing their first losses of the weekend. Martitzburg losing out to Nelspruit 22-13 and Pretoria Boys losing out to a spirited Graeme College side, 25-10. Doing the double across the two days; Hilton, SACS, Nelspruit and Graeme College. Day Three of the festival would see the u16 and u13 teams shine in the spotlight as the high school teams traveled back home.
Over in the St. Stithians Sports Festival, more rugby drama took place across two packed rugby days. The festival saw sides represented from England, Zimbabwe and Namibia join South African schools from around the country. Of which; included the duo from the Southern Suburbs Bishops and Wynberg, Michaelhouse, St. Charles and St. Andrews. Day One’s action saw the hosts put up a dominant display for their home fans,
defeating fellow South African side Clifton 32-0 while Michaelhouse ran rampant against St. Johns from Harare. Winning 64-15 as captain William Ridl scored a brace for the white and red. St. Charles would also beat Namibian outfit, Windhoek, through an inspirational performance from Eben Crafford. The flanker crossed the tryline three times to help secure the win for his side. Another top performance from the day was flyhalf Achmat Behardien, scoring 14 of Wynberg’s 19 as they toppled English side Hartpury College 19-14. The second day of the festival gave a flourish of entertaining games. St. Stithians soared once more, beating Michaehouse through fantastic displays from Kulani Tlakula and Oliver Wilson who both contributed 10 points to the 27 of the hosts, Helpmekaar edged Wynberg by a point in an affair that really could of gone either way with Wynberg having the lead at the break in play, 18-17 was the final score. On top of these games; Hartpury sealed a 19-14 win versus Bishops despite the latter winning the second half 14-7 while St. Andrews won their second of the festival by defeating St. Charles by the same scoreline.
Finally, KES hosted their 21st annual Easter Rugby Festival. Sides such as Jeppe, Rondebosch, Affies and Noordhuewel joined the hosts in some top-quality match-ups. KES narrowly defeated Bosch 20-17 in a thriller in front of the KES home support while Jeppe and Affies made easy work of Selborne and Noordhuewel respectively, all on day one. Day Two stepped up the gas as Noordhuewel responded with a second-half comeback to edge past Jeppe 21-20, Rondebosch kept it sparkly clean in defense as they fought down Queens 33-0 and Affies, recently named 5th in the country, won their second game of the festival beating Selborne comfortably 57-19.
Overall, Gauteng joined forces with KZN to deliver a fabulous weekend of rugby. Action from St. Johns, the Saints Sports Festival and KES saw some terrific performances from teams across the country. A proud showcase of spirit and determination from all teams involved. As always, all the action can be found via Supersport Schools websites and their app.
