Grey College and Millfield secure their semi-finals spots at World Schools Festival
Grey College started its World Schools Festival campaign off with a 22-7 victory over Trinity School from England.
As expected Grey started off with a bang with lock Marno Stopforth crashing over within the first two minutes of the match. At this stage, it seemed like it would be one-way traffic as in the South African’s previous matches at the World School Festival, but some gutsy performances by Trinity’s forwards kept Grey at bay.
Trinity’s flanker William Peart-Smith did more than his part at the breakdown and didn’t back down from the physical onslaught that was presented to his team. Trinity fought back and a try by outside centre, Oli Bailey, which was converted by flyhalf, Josh Bellamy, gave the English team a 7-5 lead.
The team from Bloemfontein scored another two tries via Jean Erasmus (tighhead prop) and JJ Theron (Nr. 8) in the first half to take a comfortable 17-7 lead into the break. Both worked hard throughout the match and deserve a pat on the back.
To put Grey College’s victory in perspective it was Trinity’s first defeat for 2022 and they are the current English National Cup Champions.
In a titanic clash between two English powerhouses, Millfield School and Sedburgh School, the former came out on top by 15-10. There was not much to choose between the two sides.
Millfield opened the scoring thanks to an intercept try by inside centre, Steffan Emanuel. He produced a solid performance throughout the match and could be one of the rising stars during the English schoolboy season of 2022/23.
The boot of flyhalf, Tom Howlett, kept Millfield ahead at the break. A try by winger Matt Hall was the final nail in the coffin to secure victory for Millfield.
In the two sides’ clash last year Millfield came out on top 20 points to 13.
Scorers:
Grey College 22 (17) – Tries: Marno Stopforth, Jean Erasmus, JJ Theron, Jean-Henri Smit. Conversions: Ian van der Merwe. Trinity School 7 (7) – Try: Oli Bailey. Conversion: Josh Bellamy.
Millfield 15 (8) – Try: Steffan Emanuel, Matt Hall. Conversion: Tom Howlett. Penalty: Howlett. Sedburgh 10 (5) – Tries: Jonny Hanson, Finn Baker.
