Can Bennies make it two from two?

St Benedict’s College will be looking to win the return fixture against rivals St Albans College. The first leg played out on Moshahe Field earlier this season where St Benedict’s won narrowly 25-20, where an evenly contested match played out in the Jacaranda City. 

However both teams are coming into this weekend’s fixture looking at changing their fortunes from last weekend’s disappointing results. 

St Albans lost to St Stithians 31-24, but will remain positive having beaten Clifton College from Kwa-Zulu Natal prior to that 22-10.

Pretoria Boys’ High School gave St Benedict’s a tough time winning the match 38-19 away last weekend. The Bedfordview side have shown improvement since the start of the season where they had a difficult  outing at the St John’s College Easter Festival. 

Overall both teams have struggled to build any sort of winning momentum this season.

St Benedicts will draw inspiration from skipper Sabelo Shangase, who has displayed his natural ability to control a game, ensuring that he leads from the front, directing his side like a conductor in front of their orchestra. 

All eyes will be on attacking fullback Onkgopotse Monahenge, according to his coach Andrew Barnes, ‘Onkgopotse has the ability to kick the ball a country mile!’ He is well supported in the back three by both wingers Ntelezi Mchunu and Nathi Beda. 

The Hoops have made a few changes to their team, with Joshua Verster moving into the number nine jersey. He has played most of the season as the sides flyhalf. Druan Visage moves into the all important number ten position, where he will look to put the backline into scoring positions.

Expect another tightly contested match with both teams eyeing a victory. The Hoops will be out to prove that they have the ability to win away from home and St Benidicts will be looking to leverage their home advantage. 

The teams: 

St Benedict’s College: 15 Onkgopotse Monaheng, 14 Ntelezi Mchunu, 13 Raymond Hassim, 12 Uche Ejike, 11  Nathi Beda, 10 Jason Pengelley, 9 Sabelo Shangase (captain), 8 Jason Cutler, 7 Thando Jadezweni, 6 Byron Smit, 5 Declan Murphy, 4 Luke Carr, 3 Jack Brewer, 2 Victor Goncalves , 1 Daniel Walsh (vice-captain). 

St Alban’s College: 15 John-Joshua Steenkamp, 14 Michael Rider, 13 James Edwards, 12 Luke Sass (vice-captain), 11 Nkosi Malaza, 10 Druan Visage , 9 Josh Verster, 8 Daniel Bouwer, 7 Matthew Peirce, 6 Patrick Weir, 5  Alex Yeatman, 4 William von Broembsen, 3 Craig Milne, 2  Luke Webber (captain), 1 Cody Petersen. 

Fixtures:

u16A – 10:00 (A Field)
u19B –  11:00 (A Field)
u19A – 12:00  (A Field)