Johannesburg turns pink for a good cause

St John’s College takes on their rivals, St Stithians College, in the highly anticipated annual Pink Day clash on Saturday in Johannesburg.

Catch all the action live on SuperSport Schools. Kick-off is at 12:15.

In 2016, the inaugural full-scale Pink Derby was held. Two years later, pink playing socks became a part of the occasion.

The collaboration of the rivals has helped to raise awareness of the importance of early detection of, and screening for, gender-related cancers in South Africa.

Playing for a cause, means Saturday’s showdown is about a battle for supremacy on the rugby field, but there’s more to the game than that.

Last year, Saints beat St John’s 31-19 at home. This season, both boast strong packs, but the match-up of the backlines could be where the game will be decided.

The Blues head into the contest as the favourites. In their most recent outing, they stormed to a 54-24 win over St Alban’s. Despite that big win, there is one change of personnel and one positional switch to the St John’s starting XV. Malan du Plessis makes way for Tino Munyurwa at outside centre, but Du Plessis swops the no.13 for the no. 8 jersey.

St Stithians was well beaten at home last weekend by Kearsney College, with the rejuvenated KZN school powering their way to a 50-12 victory, which was their fourth in succession. Saints struggled to keep up with the coastal side’s tempo and they’re going to be challenged in a similar fashion by St John’s whose hard running approach brought them 47 points in the first half of their win over St Alban’s.

Saints’ flyhalf Chris Anderson crossed for two tries against Kearsney, with the second one, especially, being a superb solo effort. He’ll need more support from his team-mates against St John’s, though.

St David’s Marist Inanda heads across the Jukskei to take on a wounded St Alban’s College. The Hoops have been hamstrung by injuries, which have robbed the side of several key players, in recent weeks, but they’ll be eager to right the ship after coming up short on their Old Boys’ Day last weekend.

The Pretoria school, although well beaten by St John’s, will take heart from their second half performance. After trailing by 40 points at the break, they managed to outscore their visitors 18-7 in the second half, which spoke volumes about the character within the team.

Kick-off takes place at 12:00 on Moshate Field. The conditions should be ideal for some entertaining, running rugby.

St David’s are, meanwhile, enjoying a good run of form, having topped 40 points in successive wins over Cornwall Hill College (41-9) and St Benedict’s College (48-27).

Scrumhalf Diego Ferreira has been a reliable source of points for the Johannesburg school, with his trusty boot. His opposite number, Joshua Verster, also handles his side’s kicking duties. The duel between two feisty no. 9s should be fun.

The teams beaten by St David’s over the past two weekends, St Benedict’s College and Cornwall Hill have a 12:30 kick-off. Last weekend, Bennies scored the most points they have put up in 2024, apart from their only win of the season, on 9 March, against Queens High School.

Despite the challenging season, St Benedict’s captain Jason Cutler has been a standout player week in and week out, Last weekend, with good support from his team-mates, Bennies enjoyed a seven-point lead over St David’s at halftime. Too bad that matters went south in the second half as St David’s won by 21 points.

Still, Bennies will be encouraged by a more cohesive effort, which brought some continuity to their play and saw them hit double figures for the first time since 1 April, when they went down against Graeme College at the St John’s Easter Rugby Festival.

Cornwall Hill, like Bennies, led against St David’s at halftime before being overrun in the second half. They’ll look to their flyhalf Matthew Fox to control the game and to build on his good kicking performance against St David’s.

Next weekend, the u18 Independent Schools Rugby Festival takes place in Pretoria, with Cornwall Hill, St John’s, St Stithians, St David’s, St Benedict’s and St Alban’s, who are the hosts, in action against other leading independent schools from KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and the Free State.

FIXTURES

St John’s vs St Stithians

u14A: 8:00 – St John’s College vs St Stithians (D Field)
u15A: 9:00 – St John’s College vs St Stithians (C Field)
u16A: 10:00 – St John’s College vs St Stithians (Burger Field)
u19B: 11:05 – St John’s College vs St Stithians (Burger Field)
u19A: 12:15 – St John’s College vs St Stithians (Burger Field)

St Alban’s vs St David’s

u14A: 09:30 – St Alban’s vs St David’s (Murray Field)
u15A: 10:30 – St Alban’s vs St David’s (Baloyi Field)
u19B: 09:30 – St Alban’s vs St David’s (Moshate Field)
u16A: 10:45- St Alban’s vs St David’s (Moshate Field)
u19A: 12:00 – St Alban’s vs St David’s (Moshate Field)

St Benedict’s vs Cornwall Hill

u14A: 08:00 – St Benedict’s vs Cornwall Hill (A Field)
u15A: 09:00 – St Benedict’s vs Cornwall Hill (A Field)
u19B: 10:00 – St Benedict’s vs Cornwall Hill (A Field)
u16A: 11:15 – St Benedict’s vs Cornwall Hill (A Field)
u19A: 12:30 – St Benedict’s vs Cornwall Hill (A Field)

TEAMS

St John’s College: 15 Gerald van Wyk, 14 Bryson Walker, 13 Tino Munyurwa, 12 Thomas Ivers, 11 Jacob Smith, 10 ⁠Joe MacRobert, 9 Tom Kruger, 8 ⁠Malan Du Plessis, 7 John-John Bierman, 6 Matt Liss, 5 Zain Newman, 4 Dom Kamangu , 3 Matthew Kaplan, 2 Kakuhle Tunguta, 1 Joshua Shannon.

St Stithians College: 15 Josh Meyer, 14 Cullen Bradford, 13 Nthabeleng Mafole, 12 Gabriel Hore, 11 Tyler Maclennan, 10 Chris Anderson, 9 Aphelele Ngcuka, 8 Jono Caveny, 7 Tashinga Chingonzo, 6 Ross Turner, 5 Francois Botes, 4 Luke Thorrold, 3 Keabetswe Mapukana, 2 Braedon Hollingworth, 1 Branden Lightfoot.

St Alban’s College: 15 Matthew Nelson, 14 Davon Jacobson, 13 Aidan Kloppers, 12 JJ Steenkamp, 11 Sihle Msiza, 10 Everett Gosling, 9 Joshua Verster, 8 Daniel Bouwer, 7 Thabiso Mbembele 6 Criston Richter, 5 Keegan Dick, 4 Jandre Botha, 3 Neo Gama, 2 Craig Milne 1 Andreas Philippou.

St David’s Marist Inanda: 15 Teegen Rossini, 14 Tristan Lambe, 13 Theo Fonternel, 12 Elliot Skei, 11 Owami Maropola, 10 Luca Cabion, 9 Diego Ferreira, 8 Jack Brady, 7 Tahin Patel, 6 James Askew, 5 Mark Hudson, 4 William Allemann, 3 Marco Bitter, 2 Connor McWilliams, 1 D’Andre Mushonga.

St Benedict’s College: 15 Matthew Hovelmeier, 14 Donnel Sibanda, 13 Anagona Marufu, 12 Braeden le Roux, 11 Wade Ramsay, 10 Declan le Roux, 9 Iviwe Mlilo, 8 Jason Cutler, 7 Matthew Joubert, 6 Tebogo Phukuile, 5 Luke Carr, 4 Nicholas Moravec, 3 Matthew Rourke, 2 Thato Ntshangase, 1 Victor Goncalves.

Cornwall Hill College: 15 Matthew Fox, 14 Arno Mosupye, 13 Nathan du Plooy, 12 Onkabetse Leketi, 11 Daniel van Ravensteyn, 10 Tshepo Molete, 9 Eric van Ravensteyn, 8 Dade Kunneke, 7 Tristan Austin, 6 Max Land, 5 Julian Hattingh, 4 Zander Bosman, 3 Omar Sabah, 2 Evangelos Papadopolous, 1 Tana Nhando.