Graeme College Rugby Day Report 2014
Graeme College hosted our sixteenth annual Rugby Day on Friday 21 March 2014. This unique one-day rugby festival brought together eighteen of the Eastern Cape and Border’s schools’ 1st XV teams. Graeme College also hosted a number of U16, U15 and U14 teams. Although the Rugby Day was initially created as a fun, warm up pre-season match, it has since developed into a serious season opener with practices and selections starting well before the end of the cricket season.
Today started early with the 08h00 match between Muir College and Port Alfred High School and continued to be jam-packed with amazing schoolboy rugby until the final whistle blew for the match between Graeme College and Dale College. With twenty-two matches in total, one was never without something exciting to watch. We were very grateful that no serious injuries occurred.
Graeme College would like to extend their thanks to the various schools who were willing to attend – often bringing more than one team through with them; the sponsors – especially Pam Golding – without whom such a day would not be possible; the medical professionals on site today – Drs Oosthuizen and Berenisco, the various ambulance crews, the Graeme College First Aiders; Graeme College staff for their willingness to assist wherever needed and most especially to our special guest referee Mr Jonathan Kaplan. It was an honour to have Mr Kaplan attend the event and, especially, to have him referee our match.
Comments from various people involved in the day:
Mr Peter Reed, Headmaster, Graeme College:
Graeme College is once again thankful for the superb support shown to the School by the local public and out-of-town visitors. I think that the spectators were all very impressed with the various rugby teams who showed a high quality of rugby for such an early time in the season. This year’s Rugby Day received a record number of visitors due, I’m sure, to the wonderful weather which we had today. I would like to express my appreciation to the Graeme College parents for their superb support throughout the day, as well as to all our sponsors – especially Pam Golding. Without the support from these, Graeme College would never be able to host such an amazing event. I would also like to thank Mr Nico van der Meulen and his team for organising such a fantastic day.
Mr Kevin Watson, Graeme College 1st XV Coach:
In a bruising encounter between Graeme College and Dale College, Dale emerged deservedly victorious with a 22 – 13 win. The Graeme College 1st XV courageously came back in the second half, only trailing by 6 points until the final minutes of the game when Dale converted a penalty to put the win out of our reach. The Dale College fly-half and the Graeme College full back were the most memorable players of the day
