It could be the Clash of the Season – Paarl Gim vs Grey College
It could be labeled as the Clash of the Season!
And it is on the last day of March, but it will be without a doubt a titanic clash when Paarl Gimnasium and Grey College meet today in the main match of the opening day of the annual NMI Toyota Menlyn Noord/Suid-tournament in Pretoria.
All of the action of Noord/Suid will be live-streamed by SuperSport Schools (www.supersportschools.com).
The tournament is hosted by Affies in Pretoria.
It will be the first time that these two sides meet at this prestigious event. Paarl Gimnasium could secure their places in the folklore of schoolboy rugby with a victory in today’s clash. A victory will be their third consecutive success against Grey College in as many years.
Pieter Rossouw and Helmut Lehmann‘s team has defeated Grey in 2021 (18-16) during Monument’s Centenary Festival as well as during Wildeklawer (22-17) last year.
In the recent past – lets say from 1980 – only two other teams have managed to defeat Grey College for three years on the trot. They are Paarl Boys’ High (2015-17) under Sean Erasmus and Monument of Krugersdorp from 1991 until 1994 under Hans Coetzee.
Grey College will without a doubt fight with tooth and nail like they always do to turn the tables on Paarl Gim. Grey have smashed Welkom Gimnasium (73-21) and eased pass Marlow Landbou (52-12) and St Andrew’s College (48-0) so far this season.
One thing that stood out in the performances of Grey is that they have a pack of forwards with more than enough grit and motivation to take on any other pack of forwards. The likes of Jean Erasmus (tighthead prop), Jean-Henri Smit (flanker), Marno Stopforth (lock), JJ Theron (Nr. 8), Liam van Wyk (hooker) and Keegan Scholtz (flanker) are all tough young men.
Paarl Gimnasium will without a doubt in the wet conditions in Pretoria make use of their rolling maul. Their success in the match would however be in the hands of their centre pairing of Hennie Otto and Enzo Labuschagne.
Their flyhalf, Kyle Smith, will also have to make use of his full skillset to keep his side on the frontfoot. His clash with his opposite number Ian van der Merwe promises to be one of the highlights of the match.
In the first clash between first teams at the festival HTS Drostdy face another side from Pretoria in Waterkloof. Last year the Donkies struggled in their first match due to a grueling fixture list before the Noord/Suid-tournament.
The Donkies got a hiding of 67-0 against Garsfontein last year, but they would be better prepared for this year’s clash against Klofies. Their coach Tobie Botes represented Italy in his prime as player and the team from Worcester performed well against Boland Landbou (8-24) and Paarl Boys’ High (6-13).
Waterkloof produced a very physical performance against Oakdale Landbou during the Outeniqua Centenary Festival earlier this month to secure a 8-5 victory. Klofies’ team manager, Renier de Villiers, coached the Donkies before moving to the Jacaranda City so he will know what to expect of them.
The fixtures and live-streaming links to the matches – Day 1:
| nt_header_0 | nt_header_1 | nt_header_2 | nt_header_3 | nt_header_4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 | Waterkloof | vs | HTS Drostdy | https://bit.ly/KlofiesDonkies2023 |
| 13:30 | EG Jansen | vs | Welkom Gimnasium | https://bit.ly/JansiesGim2023 |
| 15:00 | Glenwood | vs | Hoërskool Nelspruit | https://bit.ly/NelliesGlenwood2023 |
| 16:30 | Noordheuwel | vs | Maritzburg College | https://bit.ly/NoriesMaritzburg2023 |
| 18:00 | Affies | vs | Durban High School | https://bit.ly/affiesdhs |
| 19:30 | Paarl Gimnasium | vs | Grey College | https://bit.ly/paarlgrey2023 |
