Paul Roos look for trifecta as top Cape schools gather at inaugural festival in Wellington
Some of the best schools sevens teams in the Western Cape gather in Wellington this weekend for the inaugural Cape Schools Sevens Festival at Hugenote.
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Though this will be the first instalment of what will hopefully become a yearly event, the quality shown by the competing teams over the last couple of weekends promises a weekend of stellar schoolboy sevens.
The reigning NWU Prestige Schools and Marius Schoeman Sevens Tournament champions, Paul Roos, will have a target on their backs as they look to take their third trophy in as many weeks.
The boys from Stellenbosch have had a couple of slow starts to their tournaments though, and are yet to finish a weekend unbeaten.
They will hope to change that this weekend, but face some serious challenges in their pool in the likes of Stellenberg, Curro Langebaan, Porterville and a wildcard Paarl Boys’ High Invitational team, any of whom could easily cause an upset.
The two players who were singled out as the players-of-the-tournament in their previous two campaigns, Junaid Coetzee and Gert Kemp, are definitely ones to watch this weekend, but there are a number of other dangermen as well.
Samuel Badenhorst, the big first-team flank, represented the country as part of the SA u18 Sevens team at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago where they earned bronze behind only Scotland and Fiji. He has put his experience to good use for the Maroon Machine since the sevens season began.
Keenan Stoffels is another livewire with a bright future in either format of the game. He and Kemp scored two tries each in last weekend’s 33-10 victory over their old rivals, Grey College.
That was the second weekend Grey lost to Paul Roos in the final, and the boys from Stellenbosch have proven themselves to be among the foremost u17 sevens teams in the country at the moment.
That is the nature of these sevens tournaments, and one of their major attractions, as the gulf between the top schools in the country and some of the smaller schools is narrowed in the quicker format.
The home team shares a group with an in-form Boland Landbou side and Hoërskool Durbanville, who have been punching above their weight all season.
Hugenote made it to the Cup quarter-final at last weekend’s event, where they ran into Paarl Gimnasium and lost by 40-12.
Boland Landbou made an exit in the same stage, narrowly losing against Boishaai by 27-22.
A lot of effort has gone into ensuring that this weekend’s event is filled with entertainment for the spectators according to Dirkie Gildenhuys of Cape Schools Sevens.
There will be live music, food and drinks, screenings of the World Cup games, a playpark and entertainment for younger children and top-quality schools sevens. The aim is to contribute towards building the sevens platform in South African schools rugby, alongside some of the established tournaments like the Marius Schoeman Sevens and to expand to include more sporting codes in the coming years.
At this first instalment, there will already be 40 of the top rugby teams in the country competing in the u15 and u17 sevens tournaments.
“The main goal of this event is to give some smaller teams the opportunity to face some of the best teams in the country, this year we have two development teams competing at this event, and we have a few bursaries from the WP Rugby Institution which we will be able to award. We hope to turn this into an event that showcases the best up-and-coming talent” says Gildenhuys.
The Pools:
Pool A: Paarl Boys High, Brackenfell, Hermanus, Hoërskool Bellville, JSA Foundation.
Pool B: Paarl Gimnasium, Oakdale, Parel Vallei, Boland Landbou II, Bredasdorp.
Pool C: Paul Roos Gimnasium, Stellenberg, Curro Langebaan, Paarl Boys’ High Invitational, Porterville.
Pool D: Boland Landbou, Hugenote, Hoërskool Durbanille, Augsburg, Forward Foundation.
The fixtures:
Friday
Field A: 14:00 – Boland Landbou vs Forward Foundation; 14:20 – Hugenote vs Augsburg; 14:40 – Paarl Boys’ High vs JSA Foundation; 15:00 – Brackenfell vs Hoërskool Bellville; 16:40 – Paul Roos vs Curro Langebaan; 17:00 – Stellenberg vs Porterville; 17:20 – Paarl Gimnasium vs Parel Vallei; 17:40 – Oakdale vs Bredasdorp.
Field B: 15:20 – Boland Landbou vs Hoërskool Durbanville; 15:40 – Hugenote vs Forward Foundation; 16:00 – Paarl Boys’ High vs Hermanus; 16:20 – Brackenfell vs JSA Foundation; 18:00 – Hoërskool Durbanville vs Augsburg; 18:20 – Paul Roos vs Porterville.
Field C: 14:00 – Paarl Gimnasium vs Bredasdorp; 14:40 – Parel Vallei vs Boland Landbou II; 15:00 – Stellenberg vs Paarl Boys’ High Invitational; 15:40 – Oakdale vs Boland Landbou II; 17:20 – Hermanus vs Hoërskool Bellville; 18:00 – Curro Langebaan vs Paarl Boys’ High Invitational.
Saturday:
Field A: 09:20 – Paul Roos vs Paarl Boys’ High Invitational; 09:40 – Stellenberg vs Curro Langebaan; 10:00 – Paarl Gimnasium vs Boland Landbou II; 10:20 – Oakdale vs Parel Vallei; 12:00 – Augsburg vs Forward Foundation; 12:20 – Boland Landbou vs Hugenote; 12:40 – Hoërskool Bellville vs JSA Foundation; 13:00 – Paarl Boys’ High vs Brackenfell.
Field B: 08:00 – Paul Roos vs Stellenberg; 08:20 – Hoërskool Durbanville vs Hugenote; 10:00 – Boland Landbou vs Augsburg; 10:20 – Hoërskool Durbanville vs Forward Foundation; 10:40 – Paarl Boys’ High vs Hoërskool Bellville; 11:00 – Brackenfell vs Hermanus.
Field C: 08:00 – Paarl Gimnasium vs Oakdale; 08:20 – Parel Vallei vs Bredasdorp; 08:40 – Hermanus vs JSA Foundation; 11:20 – Porterville vs Paarl Boys’ High Invitational; 12:00 – Bredasdorp vs Boland Landbou II; 12:20 – Curro Langebaan vs Porterville.
